Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Spike Hilton
Bad analogy as giving someone the price of a meal will leave you with that much less money. Giving a digital file to someone who otherwise can not acquire it will leave you in the same position as before. Practically speaking though, I'm sure you are right about the ethics thing - was just chancing my arm since I can't spare 200 quid for the foreseeable future!
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Now that's wrong!
He is also left with less money here, as he could have spent the time that he took making the DVDs on another lucrative activity - e.g. giving an hour's private tutorial to a student who pays him for this service, rather than buying his DVD!
It's like saying: imagine you're a pianist and you give a concert to 100 people, you only charge one of them. After all, you are not left with less if another 99 join to listen for free!
You see, this argument doesn't really hold. I think the economic term for this is "opportunity cost" - the cost of missing out on the next best alternative (e.g. giving tutorials).