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Message: <blockquote data-quote="N0Man" data-source="post: 4915174" data-attributes="member: 64066">I think it's good that we can have a discussion here with someone with a publishing standpoint, and I'm glad that you gave input here.Please note that I never once defended piracy as being "good".  I also never tried to argue that piracy has a net positive benefit (I think it's impossible to know if it's positive or negative).  Rather, I  just dismissed the notion that "X Downloads = X Lost Sales", when there are so many factors that go into this equation that it's impossible to really know what the true ratio is.  The only thing that I can say with certainty is that it's not a 1:1 relationship.Dishonest arguments such as that (even if it's out of naivety) has the effect of alienating publishers from some potential customers.  Look at the way the music industry's draconian measures have spurred huge amounts of disdain from people who would have been regular customers.  They continually alienate themselves from their customers and then turn around and say it's the piracy's fault and just start the cycle over.One of the things I've brought up (that nobody really seemed to want to comment on) was that the possession of digital copies of the books, in themselves, can very reasonably be argued to be under Fair Use.You may argue that it's disrespectful or a false sense of entitlement.  I on the other hand might argue that it's unreasonable for a publisher to deny customer's their rights under Fair Use.  I think we'd both have valid points.I won't deny that where Fair Use begins and ends is a highly debatable subject, and beyond the scope of us or this thread, so I don't this to derail into an argument of whether these things absolutely *are* Fair Use or not, but rather I would like to present the question, "is it possible that possessing a digital copy of a book that you already own a hard copy of, could at the very least be reasonably interpreted to be under Fair Use"?</blockquote>

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