I am all for sharing.
I borrow tools from my neighbor all of the time.
A friend's car broke down, and I gave him mine to use while I was out of town.
My guest room is always open to out of town friends.
I share favorite books, CDs, and courses.
Sharing makes the world go around.
But, when I have one of Dave's tools, he doesn't have it. If we both want it at the same time, then we need to buy another.
If you want to share your PhotoReading personal learning course, pass it around. But you only purchased one to pass around.
If you want to give it to a library, go right ahead. You can. You own that copy.
If you want to sell it in a garage sale when you are finished, sell it. But you only have one copy to sell.
Competition? I love it. It keeps us on our toes. I talk with many of our competitors every day. We share information to make us all stronger and better able to help our customers.
Some times we have to change what we are doing because of what a competitor is doing. That's part of life.
But, fair competition. Some of our competitors, and our Forum regulars probably know who they are, are unfair competitors. They play dirty pool by saying untrue things, misusing our trademarks, etc.
Piracy is unfair competition. Plain and simple. Which is one of the reasons it is illegal.
You are right. In the US you cannot copyright an idea. But, you can legally protect the expression, execution of an idea, which is why we have an attorney on staff.
Third World countries? Our materials are published all around the world. The publisher in China has sold tens of thousands of the two Chinese editions of PhotoReading book in the past few months for about $1 each. And the purchasers in China pay us a few pennies for each book.
It is amazing the arguments pirates and other cons make to justify their actions. It is situational ethics.
