Reply #178: To be honest, yeah, wrong, but grey area

[Spike89]

The reality is you bought an experience, a format. If you accidently spilled wine on it, dropped it in a fire, lent it out, but didn't get it back or just lost it, would you insist the bookseller owes you a replacement?

I've done both with my personal music collection--I repurchased most of my "essential" music that was on tape and vinyl when CDs came out. In fact, I probably own at least 5 copies of Elvis Costello's "My Aim is True" album in various formats and releases, not to mention all the alternate versions of those songs I've purchased, the versions included on compilation albums I bought, etc.

As a publisher myself, I have no problem with a single person buying the paper version of my book then "stealing" the e-book version (I'd give it away with the paper version if the market didn't make it so expensive to do so). But, that is really for me to decide.