Is it ethical to pirate ebooks of texts you already bought in a bookstore? Randy Cohen, the New York Times Magazine ethicist who weekly presides over readers’ matters of morality, says yes, yes it is.
Randy Cohen is one seriously ethical fellow. If there’s some nook or cranny of an issue that seems a little off colour to you, you can be sure that Cohen will find it, seize it, and use it as the basis for pulling out his huge “Unethical” rubber stamp. He does it just about every week.
So it was with some surprise that I read his response to this week’s question about downloading bootleg ebooks. If you already own the real, tree-killing version, then go right ahead, he says. His ruling is based on the simple fact that copyright laws don’t reflect today’s technologies and how we use them. Cohen explains:
An illegal download is – to use an ugly word – illegal. But in this case, it is not unethical. Author and publisher are entitled to be paid for their work, and by purchasing the hardcover, you did so. Your subsequent downloading is akin to buying a CD, then copying it to your iPod.
Pretty much the only time I think about ethics is when I’m reading Randy Cohen’s The Ethicist column. But it’s heartening to see that people who think deeply about these issues, and who publish those thoughts on prominent platforms, are increasingly reluctant to condemn piracy simply because it’s illegal.
Even if our outdated copyright laws don’t change anytime soon, it’s good to know we’ve got a professional ethicist on our side. Read Cohen’s full response in this week’s New York Times Magazine.
Jokemeister
Monday, April 12, 2010 at 7:18 AMWe could start an endless debate here and it wouldn’t really get us anywhere, but it seems to me that Cohen has perhaps missed an important fact. Somebody put in time, effort and money to create the eBook, so there should be fair compensation for that effort. If however you have the hardcopy and choose to do the work yourself, then no, the copyright owner is not entitled to compensation AND you haven’t breached any ethical standards. THIS is how ripping your music and transferring to your iPod etc. works. Somebody does the work for you, then you need to pay, ie. if you don’t want to put in the effort and still want it, IT HAS VALUE.
FunkyJ
Monday, April 12, 2010 at 4:53 PMSomeone puts time and money into hacking an e-book – probably as much as it takes to convert a disc based final draft of a novel into an e-readable format.
So, ethically by your reasoning, we should we pay pirates for pirated e-books too.
Bern
Monday, April 12, 2010 at 9:49 AM@Jokemeister: I agree, somebody else creating an electronic version of a book you already own *is* something you should pay for.
What I, personally, object to is having to pay the same price for an electronic version as for a hardcover, when we all know the electronic version has practically zero reproduction & distribution costs. Basically, I resent being screwed to pad the profit margins of the major publishing houses.
This is particularly offensive here in Australia where the RRP for some hardcover novels is > $50 these days…
klaw
Monday, April 12, 2010 at 11:08 AM@Jokemeister: You raise a fair point, but I believe it’s based on a faulty premise.
I would suggest that the “time, money & effort” involved in making an ebook version of a book which has already been published on paper is minute and insignificant. Such a process would largely be automated and would require very little time & effort, in the same way that offering a downloadable music album requires very little effort when the CD album has already been released.
Jokemeister
Monday, April 12, 2010 at 7:06 PMGuys, I think my opening comment pretty much set the scene and since a few of you have thrown it back to me, I think it justified to make this one reply. Firstly, I agree with the whole premise that eBooks are very likely overpriced and I too will not be paying the same or more for an eBook. Re time money & effort, I never said the qty of any of these was substantial but in some cases they will be, eg. reference books, some they won’t, eg. plain text paperbacks etc. At the end of the day, if you think the publisher is charging too much, then you either convert it yourself or you didn’t really need it that badly and don’t bother. Who ever thought apps would become so cheap?…..the market will decide the price publishers can charge for eBooks, but first eReaders need to become prolific. Oh, and no I’m not saying pirates should be paid for their work. They are breaking the law..!! If YOU own it legally, then YOU should be entitled to convert it’s format for your own use. BTW, if you buy an eAnything, I believe you should be legally entitled to sell it again just like the hardcopy.