>"Getting music free" is not the same thing as buying a used book. >The appropriate analogy for getting free music would be getting a >free photocopy someone made from a book at one point. Or taking a book that was marked for destruction. If you ever see paperbacks with the covers torn off of them in a discount bin, please don't buy them. The author did not receive any royalties from that copy. >Downloading a book for free would be in most cases wrong -- >sometimes publishers have set up that sort of thing, and of >course some are out of copyright. When I bought _War of Honor_, I was very surprised that Baen had included a CD-ROM that not only had all the text of the previous Honor books, but a large unabridged selection of other books on their list. Most surprising was the following statement on the disk: "This disk and its contents may be copied and shared, but not sold." Apparently, Baen has taken a rather agressive policy of making many of their older titles free to the public. I don't know how that will ultimately work out for them, but I certainly like the idea. I especially approve of the concept of including digital copies of previous books in a series with the latest installment. I know how frustrating it can be for someone to try and track down all of a series' prior installments upon having discovered one that they're interested in. I think that this would make it much easier for new readers to join into continuing works. _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail