Is E Book Downloading A Robbery?

An author is not an isolated island. Whatever he feels, enjoys, learns, writes, creates, is a part of community. Without the teaching of a community no writer can live and educate himself, let alone write books. Otherwise, he ought to have lived where he has never communicated with a human being, in which case the question of he publishing a book will never arise at all. So, plainly speaking, what one has written, he cannot hide from community, if he publishes. If he publishes, it means he releases the book for circulation in the community. Like community did not restrict his free access to knowledge, he too cannot restrict community's free access to knowledge. It is a matter of keeping decency, loyalty and principles of repayment. It is his own duty to see that his writings reach everyone, free, once released in internet, or as downloadable e-books in devices. Never shall a poor man denied the contents of a book because he is poor and so cannot purchase a book. One can say that as he already has the devise to download and read an e-book, he must be a rich man and therefore has to pay for reading, which is far from reality. A poor man who want to have knowledge will have only an internet connection which is neither a luxury nor costly. In most countries, it is now one of the rights of the citizen. But he will not have money to buy online books. Let him also read and learn, without damaging his dignity the least. Some of them will want to hold the book physically in their hands. They will purchase the book from book shops and the writer will get his repayment. He should be satisfied and contended with that. Do not please use the term piracy here. It is instead the right to knowledge. Every writer in this world is a pirate, using the collective knowledge of the community for conceiving, plotting and creating the book, expressing what he has to say pirating again at least the style of speech of others like his father and mother. Even Einstein and Bill Gates did not invent anything new of their own but made use of the collective knowledge of the community, accumulated through ages.

[In reply to Linked In discussion: E book downloading a robbery? Started by Stanislav Dimitrov]