I was just reading another thread and one of the posters said he would never buy a trading book because he could download it free. My first "very short reaction" was sort of "loser - thief". But I used to work as a lawyer for a record company and I know I was conditioned to think that way by the government and my job. After all it was apparently bill gates who got the government to protect digital code. I certainly do not think something is wrong just because someone else or the government tells me so.... think prohibition. So morally should we be averse to downloading a trading book, software or music over the internet if that is an Intellectual property violation?
put it this way. You spend two years of your life writing a pretty good book, hoping to. Someone uploads it to a number of torrent sites without your permission, and many people read it for free. Not a problem? Try it this way; all the bookstores (B&N, Amazon, etc.) decide to run off a million copies and make it available for free at all their bookstores, costing you any sales. Problem yet? Try it another way. You come up with an invention. You tell your best friend, and he sells the idea to someone else, making $10,000,000. You make nothing. Wrong? You decide to fight this and learn the lawyers want $75,000 up front before they take your case, and they also tell you that you will probably lose.
well stated... but is is morally wrong for the person to download it. Isn't IP protection just a series of arbitrary choice made by government. Do you have to pay the estate of someone every time you buy a 38% retracement. Or when you sing a song to yourself or when you read a book someone else bought? Who says you can't buy the first copy - scan it an put it on the net? who says you can't copy windows 7 you can copy the way a golfer hits a putt.
At least some age limit on the work should be considered. After all, patents only last 17 years. Maybe protect Art for 25 years(a generation) and then let it be free to circulate.
Takers take and givers give. However that line of conscience is individualized. Laws are there in the event that the individual hasn't that sense, as well as protecting the rights of others property. One person might buy multiple albums and books and occasionally utilize pirated materials. In that event you have a contributor in general who for whatever reason decides to slack in their purchasing disciplines. I buy a lot of software ... occasionally I use and don't buy. But I buy it later if I like it ... usually. If I profit from something ... I certainly buy it. Regardless, takers take and givers give. Keeping a clean conscience is priceless.
Just considering music for this reply, but it occurred to me back when the debate was red hot that it is some kind of accident of fate that a musician can create music and then thanks to the miracle of technology can make millions off of it through licensing and repitition. But common labor, also valuable, like a carpenter for example, has to do the work every single time to get paid. In that sense, I don't think it's wrong to copy music. If a musician wants to earn a living making music, they can tour and, like a laborer, get paid by the job. That said, there is an entire industry depending on artists to create these works, and not enough jobs to go around as it is...
that is true for less than 0.1% of musicians. Most barely scrape by. And justifying stealing someone else's copyrighted work is not really any different than going into the store, and helping oneself to a few choice items... But the real thieves, are the people who take others' property, and upload it to torrent sites without permission.
DLing something you would otherwise buy from the store is obviously wrong. But what about computer games that you buy then sell once you are done on eBay? It's morally wrong to pirate a game instead of buying and selling on eBay. However I wonder if the producers of the game really lose anything. You do offer a little bit of price support, so perhaps in a round about way there's a tiny amount making it into their pockets. But not much, if anything. Particularly if you are very careful when you purchase the game. If you are careful, you can sell it for a little more than you paid, so you are only out shipping, transaction fees and eBay fees.
I don't think buying something new/used and then selling a legitimate DVD/software is any more wrong than doing so with a tangible gadget. They were legal and that should not be a problem The problem is, people decide to generate illegal copies and sell/upload those.