This all story is really complex.
When there was nothing "virtual", I could lend a book, a video-tape, music-tape, CD, RPG book to anyone close (friend, family), and this was not illegal UNLESS I would lend those items and being paid for it, or had to pay to borrow those items.
The same was for borrowing something from a friend.
The thing is, when I had lent something to (or borrowed from) a friend, ONLY ONE of us could watch / read / listen.
But even with the internet, if you were to lend such an item, you can not be sure that the book won't be xeroxed or scanned, the CD, tape, DVD won't be copied, and then, put on emule, torrent, etc...
The thing, with pdf, is that you could imagine having bought a .pdf (or a VOD, or a mp3) product and lend it (lending a copy), and you could still have accesse to your own file.
But if you have legally bought it. Do we have to consider it a crime ?
I would say that if you lend a pdf to ONE person at a time (and if you are sure the previous one has erased the file), it is no crime.
But how can you be sure ?
Have you never heard of someone everyone trusted to be dishonnest after all (Madoff could be an example at a large scale, but there are so many such "little"examples) ?
Have you never heard of family stories when, the parents gone, relationships between brothers and sisters went awry about the money left ?
So, could you swear, about someone you know very very well, that if he'd ever do something you consider impossible for him to do and dishonest according to your own values, you'd immediately kill yourself ?
I think that the thing that this person should not have done is sharing with several persons (including under 18) a pdf.
However, I guess that nobody could blame if for lending his pdf to ONE person and printing his pdf so that others could also read the book of rules.
There are also 2 things I really think :
- RPG is a bit of a "bourgeois" hobby : you need money to buy books, minis, dice (and so on) that could be wasted elsewhere if you are very short on money (I can borrow a book at a public library, but I can not play if I don't find at least 1-2 persons around the table that have the core rule books). I guess it needs to be clear : there are poor people playing RPG, but you do not find lots of RPGers in Africa, most of small central America states, lots of asian countries, and even in Europe or North America, most of the people playing come from an above average social & money family (not all, but most) ;
- there is a kind of hypocrisis around here : I would like everyone criticizing this polish guy SWEARING (upon his holy texts and family) that he/she has NEVER downloaded afile (movie, music or book...) AND never copied a file (DVD, CD, mp3, ..., that were lent and not bought previously) AND has NEVER used an illegal pdf/mp3/video/music file.
I consider myself as an honest person :
- We have (wife & I) lots of books (RPG or not, D&D RPG being ODD, D&D, AD&D 1 & 2, D&D 3.0, 3.5 and D&D 4E, TSR/WOTC or other publisher), CD's, DVD's,
- We have NEVER downloaded illegal material (be it music, movie or book) since we do not like that, and I like to collect "solid" stuff,
- We own more than 250 RPG adventures / box / books / other various material and maybe more than that (second hand or new) [technically I do own them since she doesn't play], more than 600 "bought" CD's and maybe more than that (likewise) , more than 700 DVD's and maybe more than that (likewise) and more than 300 various art books / pocket books / comics (mostly "european" comic books) and maybe more than that (likewise),
- HOWEVER : I know that we own about 12-15 copied CD's (I guess about 2% of all our CD's, anyway that is illegal ; no copied DVD's though ; at least 8-10 of those copied CD's would be bought by us if we could find them at a reasonnable price though), I know that I do own a CD-rom with about 6-7 adventures from a publisher that were bought by someone else but he copied them for me since I could not find them (but I am still looking to BUY them if I find them for a reasonnable price).
So, even being honest (I guess, and my friends consider me as an honest man), having bought so much items & products, I could not swear being TOTALLY on the "good" side of the fence between legal/illegal.
OK, now for something completely different (sorry to leave the trail) :
Think about this (regarding CD's and DVD's) : you buy an item, you are told it is a great product, you then happen to know this product won't last more than 8-10-12 years (nobody can really tell).
I feel that if in several years, I had to buy everything again, this would be dishonest from the entertainment major companies, even stealing my money : I know people who have 30-40 years old vynil discs, I own books that are 80-90 years old, and now, I am told nothing will last more than a decade ?
Moreover, maybe there won't be any player capable of reading my DVD's ?
If I chose to download every movie I have on DVD, (and only those) because I paid for them and I want to still be able to watch them in a few years, would I be a pirat, a stealer, dishonest ?
If I chose not to, but found that my DVD's are "dead" in 5 years, what would you think ?
Who is stealing in that case ?