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[Vorhaart]

Originally Posted by JohnSnow

Sorry, but the morality involved is not "fuzzy" in the slightest. Your argument that it's "different for different industries" is sophistry.

Distribution is: "turning something you own over to others."

Using something yourself that you have paid for is legal. Loaning, giving, or selling your physical copy to your friend (or a total stranger) is legal. Copying a couple of pages so your friend can borrow them is legal. Copying it wholesale (whether by scanning or typing it out) and giving your friend a copy is ILLEGAL, but isn't worth the cost of prosecution.

Similarly, the number of people capable of memorizing the document from a single readthrough is a benefit those people obtain. They still can't legally distribute it in whole to other people.

There's no two ways about it. Making that digital copy available online for hundreds or thousands of people (or more) to use is not just illegal, it might even be worth prosecuting.

So it isn't that scanning your book and giving a digital copy to your friend is legal, it's that, like going 2 miles an hour over the speed limit, you can probably get away with it. But you're still breaking the law.

What about in this case? I, like many others, have preordered the books. The company has already taken my money, but has not yet provided the product. Legally, I own the product now; am I not allowed to view the material I have already paid for?

Yes, I agree making it available to anyone who wants it regardless of whether they actually own it or not is wrong, both morally and legally. However, unless/until corporations began to realize that yes, there is a demand for this product, yes, the old rules of business are becoming obsolete and yes, unless you provide what customers want you will lose sales, there is no impetus for them to change.