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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kichwas" data-source="post: 4699489" data-attributes="member: 891">This argument kind of stems out of the old debate against the music industry. It was very easy to form an ethic that it was ok or even proper to steal music - you were cutting out the middle man. A lot of people back during the days of that debate often said they would turn around and buy if they were buying it from the musician directly.(I'm not advocating that ethic, I'm just saying that it was very easy for many people to reach it - they feel like mini-Robin Hoods.)And some musicians are today selling their own music directly on iTunes or their own websites. I believe even some major artists have gone this way. That indicates that in some cases, the artists agree.In the music industry time and technology have evolved to the point where the label, the middle man, is now obsolete. Its only a mater of time until the record label is a dead concept.But that doesn't apply here. The same ethic can't be stretched into this small book press industry. You -might- be able to stretch it into buying your latest novel at Borders or Barnes and Nobles... but RPGs are often sold by artist-owned labels (WotC being the exception). You steal that book, you aren't robbing an obsolete middle man, you're robbing the artist who made it.Maybe the time for copyright is over - and everything should move to some variation of open source. But within that concept, you still -need- a model by which to compensate an artist for her work.What is that model? I don't know. But you can't craft an ethical justification for taking the work without it.</blockquote>

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