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Comment by theshrike79 | Hacker News Reader

I depends on your ethical limitations.

Do you want the _exact_ book file you've downloaded or just _a_ file of the book you purchased (a license to read)?

For the latter, finding (main stream) ebooks isn't exactly hard, but it also isn't exactly legal.

For example I buy physical copies of books, which I don't have the space for. Then I donate them away and "acquire" the ebook version to read and archive. If an author sells the ebook directly without Amazon (or Rakuten) as a middleman, I purchase it from them directly.

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But Meta said it's okay to download them if you don't distribute them!

Donating the book away technically forfeits your moral right to the “acquired” copy. Whoever benefits from the donation may otherwise have purchased a separate copy of the book.

The Shrike certainly has some deep soul searching to do here. I am frankly aghast at such a suggestion and totally agree with you that on this technicality, his ethically fiber has waived. I hope he can find a way back to the light, if such a thing is even possible after his dubious and destructive actions of, checks notes, giving publishers money but not enough to keep his soul clean.

So if I do the same with movies (buy it, rip it and donate it), I'm again "technically forfeiting my moral right?"

Or should I just burn the book so I don't taint a potential book buyer? :D

Yes, it’s the same with movies. :)

In the extreme, someone could buy one DVD, rip it, and pass it on (for money or for free, it doesn’t matter) to a chain of hundreds of people who do the same and now all get to keep the movie digitally forever, while the copyright holder only sold the single initial copy.

My point is not to admonish anyone, just to point out how passing on the physical copy while keeping an uncompensated digital copy is inconsistent with the goal of compensating creators proportionally.

the goal of compensation creators proportionally flew out the door when the publisher took 85%.

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