6 ms·

IMHO it's an analogy because it's analogous, otherwise it would be reporting. This is why I would be just as stumped if you asked me for the specific real-world

IMHO it's an analogy because it's analogous, otherwise it would be reporting. This is why I would be just as stumped if you asked me for the specific real-world name of the granpa in the analogy. However, the recent headlines have been about "rare" books, of which it can therefore be assumed that few copies remain, and fewer of those (possibly none) would be accessible to the public if they are in the hands of collectors or long-time buyers. As an author, I know some of my own books didn't sell and probably exist by now in small enough quantities that if you destroyed the boxes in my apartment, and bought the last single copy still available used on Amazon, nobody's ever getting their hands on the other few that might be surviving in a couple of basements here and there.

ssl-3 27d ago
Destroying some rare books is destroying some rare books. That's a thing that appears may be happening; we can talk about that thing at face-value. No analogs required. Deliberately gathering up and destroying all copies of a rare book is deliberately gathering up and destroying all copies of a rare book. That's not a thing that appears to be happening; there's no face-value to talk about here, is there? Or are we just discussing left-field hypotheticals? Nobody is taking all of the unsold books out of your apartment to cut the spines off and scan the pages, are they? :) As a voluminous writer myself, this is something that I do care about.
- sebastiennight 26d ago
  Alright then. Your granpa once wrote an obscure book about this amazing way he'd found to cure diabetes. Corporation A buys one of the rare few remaining copies of the book, scans it, destroys the original, and sets up a commercial business offering a monthly subscription to alleviate diabetes pains with this new method they claim they discovered. Other copies still exist, but they're now marginally harder to find and the corporation gives no credit to the source in their product and marketing. Person B borrowed the book from a municipal library, Xerox'd it, and keeps a free ledger, open to all who want to read old books, as a way to safeguard free access to the world's knowledge. Do you think there could exist any possible logic by which some people would consider Corporation A to be committing a form of "theft"? > Nobody is taking all of the unsold books out of your apartment to cut the spines off and scan the pages, are they? :) Sadly, I'm moving and a bunch of those books are going to get turned into pulp as I'm not going to keep lugging them around the world with me for the rest of my life. Where are the Archive guys when I need them?
  - ssl-3 26d ago
    > Do you think there could exist any possible logic by which some people would consider Corporation A to be committing a form of "theft"? I can't answer that as-asked. I am but one person; I do not represent anyone but myself and I'm not about to pretend to know what others may or may not think. But I will say that no, I do not consider this scenario to be theft. Nobody was stolen from. A physical item was purchased from another party, and the new owner of that item did what they wanted with it. If you or I or Corporation A buy one of these rare books and use it as toilet paper, or to cut up and make little paper boats out of, then: Still no theft. Furthermore, maybe I buy your grandfather's rare book from a yard sale and use it to learn about the amazing way he'd found to cure diabetes. Or I borrow a copy from the library. Either way: The book is legitimately in my hands and I'm reading it. I'm learning from it. I integrate that method (your grandfather's method!) into my little pea-sized brain's model of life, the universe, and everything. And then: I write about the method I learned about. Maybe I publish a zillion copies and scatter them as leaflets that blanket the Earth, or I make one single-copy gilded print that I sell for a zillion dollars, or I set the scribes forth at dawn to duplicate it onto scrolls of Charmin to use as toilet paper. That's still not theft. In terms of copyright (which is also not an issue of theft): Copyright doesn't protect ideas. Perhaps it should, but it does not.
    - sebastiennight 25d ago
      I appreciate you articulating this viewpoint in more detail, and I understand it better now. Thanks.

ssl-3 27d ago

Destroying some rare books is destroying some rare books. That's a thing that appears may be happening; we can talk about that thing at face-value. No analogs required. Deliberately gathering up and destroying all copies of a rare book is deliberately gathering up and destroying all copies of a rare book. That's not a thing that appears to be happening; there's no face-value to talk about here, is there? Or are we just discussing left-field hypotheticals? Nobody is taking all of the unsold books out of your apartment to cut the spines off and scan the pages, are they? :) As a voluminous writer myself, this is something that I do care about.

sebastiennight 26d ago
Alright then. Your granpa once wrote an obscure book about this amazing way he'd found to cure diabetes. Corporation A buys one of the rare few remaining copies of the book, scans it, destroys the original, and sets up a commercial business offering a monthly subscription to alleviate diabetes pains with this new method they claim they discovered. Other copies still exist, but they're now marginally harder to find and the corporation gives no credit to the source in their product and marketing. Person B borrowed the book from a municipal library, Xerox'd it, and keeps a free ledger, open to all who want to read old books, as a way to safeguard free access to the world's knowledge. Do you think there could exist any possible logic by which some people would consider Corporation A to be committing a form of "theft"? > Nobody is taking all of the unsold books out of your apartment to cut the spines off and scan the pages, are they? :) Sadly, I'm moving and a bunch of those books are going to get turned into pulp as I'm not going to keep lugging them around the world with me for the rest of my life. Where are the Archive guys when I need them?
- ssl-3 26d ago
  > Do you think there could exist any possible logic by which some people would consider Corporation A to be committing a form of "theft"? I can't answer that as-asked. I am but one person; I do not represent anyone but myself and I'm not about to pretend to know what others may or may not think. But I will say that no, I do not consider this scenario to be theft. Nobody was stolen from. A physical item was purchased from another party, and the new owner of that item did what they wanted with it. If you or I or Corporation A buy one of these rare books and use it as toilet paper, or to cut up and make little paper boats out of, then: Still no theft. Furthermore, maybe I buy your grandfather's rare book from a yard sale and use it to learn about the amazing way he'd found to cure diabetes. Or I borrow a copy from the library. Either way: The book is legitimately in my hands and I'm reading it. I'm learning from it. I integrate that method (your grandfather's method!) into my little pea-sized brain's model of life, the universe, and everything. And then: I write about the method I learned about. Maybe I publish a zillion copies and scatter them as leaflets that blanket the Earth, or I make one single-copy gilded print that I sell for a zillion dollars, or I set the scribes forth at dawn to duplicate it onto scrolls of Charmin to use as toilet paper. That's still not theft. In terms of copyright (which is also not an issue of theft): Copyright doesn't protect ideas. Perhaps it should, but it does not.
  - sebastiennight 25d ago
    I appreciate you articulating this viewpoint in more detail, and I understand it better now. Thanks.