The Robin Hoods of the Web (postscript)
Jonathan Markoff
markoff2 at cais.com
Sun Oct 15 06:21:22 CEST 2000
Imagine this scenario: you own a copy of the printed comic book UNCLE
SCROOGE 386, the latest issue of Gladstone's third or fourth run of
publishing. Your neighbor is considering buying it, but doesn't know if the
stories are ones he wants to spend $7 on. So you lend him your copy, and it
turns out that he hates the stories in it. Ergo, he does not spend the $7
to buy his own copy. Have you, therefore, robbed Gladstone of $7, even if
you didn't get any money yourself?
(I appreciate the web, but find cyber-comic-reading aggravating--it feels
inherently like I'm just borrowing a "copy" which is not my own.)
--Jonathan Markoff
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