Is this morally wrong?

[Jeff W]

I download copyrighted e-books/scanned books to read on my computer. If I wanted to read them otherwise, I would check them out at the library. Regardless of whether or not I check the book out or download it, the publisher will receive no money from me.

Is it morally wrong to read the e-books?

[kipin]

Information wants to be free.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

[ QUOTE ]
Information wants to be free.

[/ QUOTE ]
This may be true, but if the people who generate and provide the information aren't compensated, there will be nobody to generate and provide it in the future.

[brassnuts]

[ QUOTE ]
Information wants to be free.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wonder how much thought goes through the brain to make this statement.

Whenever I download something illegally, I know it's wrong.

[kipin]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Information wants to be free.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wonder how much thought goes through the brain to make this statement.

Whenever I download something illegally, I know it's wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]

You may be interested in reading this.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2....ideas_pr.html

[brassnuts]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Information wants to be free.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wonder how much thought goes through the brain to make this statement.

Whenever I download something illegally, I know it's wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]

You may be interested in reading this.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2....ideas_pr.html

[/ QUOTE ]

"Notions of property, value, ownership, and the nature of wealth itself are changing more fundamentally than at any time since the Sumerians first poked cuneiform into wet clay and called it stored grain. Only a very few people are aware of the enormity of this shift, and fewer of them are lawyers or public officials."

I guess it's limited to freethinkers like the author of this article. I only got about a third into it. It was too wordy and didn't make any strong points so I gave up. The argument, as far as I read, was something like, "You can't stop the piracy of digital property so people shouldn't try." They may be correct about efforts to protect digital property being futile, but I don't think we should give up just yet.

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
I only got about a third into it. It was too wordy and didn't make any strong points so I gave up.

[/ QUOTE ]

I gave up on Wired years ago because I could never finish an article. If I want to read something that can't be done in one sitting on the throne, I'll buy a book.

[NiceCatch]

[ QUOTE ]

You may be interested in reading this.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2....ideas_pr.html

[/ QUOTE ]

A thought that struck me as I read the opening TJ quote is that his argument leads to the following conclusion: ideas and intellectual property have no inherent monetary value. Which means the work that people put into creating intellectual property shouldn't (or can't) be compensated.

I'm not really worried about the fact that the production of intellectual property will disappear to nothing... but certainly I would think the quality of it would go down greatly with zero financial incentive. Would you work at your current job if you received no financial compensation? Why is it that you DON'T do what you'd love to do (if it is not what you are currently doing for a living)?

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

What I do for a living is entirely production of intellectual property. What I supply to a customer is data, models, designs, my opinion, and other things that are of significant value as intellectual property. They pay tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time for this property. I'm certainly not going to give it to them for free and they'd certainly be upset if someone hacked in and stole it. I sign agreements that I won't disclose any of it to anybody else.

Granted, in my particular line of work this also has potential national security and/or ITAR implications, but in the end, it's essentially the same as music, movies, or literature. This stuff doesn't come for free. We are in an era now where intellectual property is quite significant and we need to come to a better way of controlling it and its communication, just as other forms of property and their transfer were more important in past eras.

[kipin]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Information wants to be free.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wonder how much thought goes through the brain to make this statement.

Whenever I download something illegally, I know it's wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry I am too tired to really put my statement into my own words, but this fellow pretty much sums up what I want to say.

http://www.jwz.org/doc/iwtbf.html

Like I said I am way to tired to have this discussion, sorry for opening a can of worms and not sticking around to discuss it.