(This post originally appeared in Shiloh Walker’s blog)

To keep this on track, please note that I am not talking about Creative Commons or other ways of freely sharing work—simply because those involve author’s choice. That is not what I want to address here.

Piracy and filesharing automatically remove the author from the equation; the decision to share and to download pirated work is made by the original perpetrator and by every person out there willing to ‘get a free copy’ illegally.

As I see the issue of piracy, there are two main aspects, the ethical and the practical.

Ethically speaking, piracy is wrong. Period. No gray areas here, no apologies that cut it. The person who downloads ‘free’ copies of pirated items is stealing those copies, and cheating the creator of the work out of their due royalties.

You can’t afford to buy the books? Use the library, borrow from a friend, or do without. (more…)