Comment by Philip-J-Fry
6 hours ago
But you must understand you are a minority. Most people don't do this, they will get something for free and fiercely defend this right to get things for free.
Libraries aren't unethical, because they're just letting you borrow stock of books. There's practical limits on how it scales, and any impatient users might just buy the book. Once you can infinitely duplicate a work, it's not borrowing.
Half of the world lives on $300/mo. For majority of the world there's meaningful impact in saving $20 on a book.
> Most people don't do this, they will get something for free and fiercely defend this right to get things for free.
So what? I think, if you read a good book, learn something or are well-entertained, it's a positive externality, so there is no problem with people doing it for free.
The only real issue with IP piracy is when someone gets money by copying the works. Which were originally the cases copyright tried to prevent.
Maybe you can clarify why you see people doing these things for free a problem, when there is a net benefit to society and also you.
If I didn't have a resource like AA I would likely read less and in the end spend less on books.
When people around me ask about how to "get into reading" I tell them to just find stuff they like online (via AA) or at the library and go from there. If you don't pay initially you don't feel as bad about trying things that may be "bad" or that you aren't interested in.
How do you know most people don't do this? All my e-book-reading friends buy physical and digital copies of books in addition to whatever they get off AA.