Orson Scott Card On Copyright

Author Orson Scott Card wrote this column about copyright. If you're like me, you have a real short attention span, so probably the best summary came from the Slashdot thread:

Maybe you pirate one of his e-books and you like it enough to buy the print version for the "feel."

Maybe you don't buy that one in print, but buy others either in paper or electronically because you like his writing.

Or maybe you decide he sucks as an author and never read anything of his again.

In any of these cases, what has he lost? Nothing. You weren't going to plop down $7 for his paperback anyhow.

The only way he loses is if you decide he is a great author, so you pirate all his books.

Even then he doesnt, technically, lose, he just doesnt gain, it's as if you never read his first book to find out how good he was.

I think it's difficult for most people to make the switch to this way of thinking but I'm pretty sure it's where things are going.