Thesis: In a digital age, we need to be very careful about our integrity.
If you are pressed for time, read only the question and respond if so inclined .
The Question: Can I legitimately take a picture of a quote in a book at Barnes and Noble, or do I have to buy the whole book?
Background: I buy a lot of books. I mean a lot of books.
How many books you ask? Let me put it his way. I am Barnes and Noble’s favorite customer. When I walk in, they assign someone to follow me around in case I need something. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos gave me his cell phone number. I text him when I want books and he stops by the warehouse to personally shrink wrap my orders.
Which is to say, I must limit myself somewhere.
So recently, while at Barnes and Noble, I was reading a book and I stumbled across a quote that I thought would be useful for my sermon. However, I didn’t necessarily want to buy the book – –
I started to type the quote into my Blackberry, but then thought, why am I typing in the whole quote. I could just take a picture using my camera phone.
An ethical wrestling match ensued: Is this a violation of copyright laws and a form of stealing?
What do you think?
Good question. I suppose it would depend on what you did with the photo. If the photo was for your personal use only and you deleted the photo after writing the quote on paper, then that doesn’t seem to be any different than writing the quote in your blackberry or on paper. However, because you are in a public place where others are watching – who don’t know what you intend to do with the photo – and they know that you are a Christian and a pastor – it might hurt your witness and possibly cause others to stumble. I’ll be curious to see what other more knowledgeable people think.
I mostly just wanted to stop by and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
no legal or ethical violation. if you looked hard enough you’d probably find it for free on the web anyway. i think it’s resourceful and entrepreneurial. jerry bridges on the other hand – now, that’s the guy to ask!
happy birthday from christina & steve!
🙂
or, how about this? buy the book, write your quote down, and then return the book! nothin’ wrong with that, right?
Chris, it’s your birthday? Hope you have a wonderful day! =} Please delete my previous comment–I think I’ve gotten the typos out of this one. Some editor I am!
I don’t view this as a transgression of a stealing nature or an ethical breach of any kind. We live in a digital age, and you are not swiping anything from B/N that you couldn’t take a screen capture of while viewing an excerpt on their website or that you couldn’t memorize photographically with your own brain. This week I snapped a photo with my cruddy camera-phone of a “The Way I See It” quip on a Starbucks cup. Granted, I’d bought the cup and just didn’t want to cut the quote out, but my point is, if it’s in print, it’s able to be viewed and committed to memory–and in our day and age, “viewed and committed to memory” covers a whole lot more territory than it once did.
I do a lot of work in a library where I cannot get a card. I take notes, sometimes pages’ worth of quoted material. I’m not stealing, not even borrowing. I took a camera-phone photo of the covers of a series of books at the library because they were cool. I’m somewhat into marketing design and packaging–if I like a particular thing, I’ll snap a photo of it–not to copy it or exploit it for my own future designs, but just because I LIKE it and want to remember it. If you went to a library, you could open any book and take notes. You’re not taking those notes so that you can plagiarize them. You’re not taking those notes because you want to rip off the library.
Same with B/N, I think. You are not stealing their books by snapping a photo any more than you are stealing their books by jotting down a quip. It is their marketing choice to allow you to browse, view and commit to memory at will. =}
You can’t do anything with that book that you wouldn’t do if you didn’t own it–you can’t write in it, can’t cut out the quotes you like, you can’t damage it in any way that would disqualify it from future sale. It’s not your possession, but you can view it and commit whatever possible of it to memory. You’d be allowed to type notes on your BlackBerry, and it’s permissible to log that experience with a photo. In our day and age, that perk is one of the “commit to memory” aids from which we benefit.
All that to say, there’re more reasons than “everyone else is doing it” to justify doing it. I would buy a coffee from B/N if you’re going to sit there, take up one of their chairs while you read, while you view and commit to memory some of their products’ contents. You owe them that, at least.
I don’t think Barnes and Noble is the problem. I think the publisher/author would be the problem. I believe you can quote an author without getting permission from him? So I would not see a problem as long as you cited your source? correct?
I think the problem could potentially be both the publisher and the store. I agree that we must give credit.
How would that be different than seeing the same book at a library and photocopying the desired page?
Greg, my thinking is that the library actually purchased the book and the purpose is to allow the use of it without it being purchased again—whereas at the store the idea is that you would actually buy books–
Of course, I do buy books and occasionally an exorbitantly priced cup of coffee.
I’m still thinking about this.
i kept thinking about this and have a different viewpoint now. this is a matter that can be disputed. i think you can make an argument for it being a violation and also make the argument that it is not. i personally would not have a problem doing it but there are others that would. the verse that came to mind is romans 14:23 – whatever does not come from faith is sin. so, if doing this convicts you and you still do it, then yes, it is wrong.
Why not ask the bookstore managers? If they think you are defrauding them, I would think that would matter more than anything. If they are fine with, I’d say that would at the very least leave an open door for you to wrestle further… 🙂
Happy birthday, Chris! As long as it’s just for personal use, I don’t see a difference between writing the quote down or taking its picture.
Happy to hear you are using your Blackberry! Happy Birthday late!
I think you have to consider whether taking the picture replaces buying the book. If you were told you could not take the picture, would you buy the book?
Scanning photos taken by a photographer to make cheaper duplicates is stealing. But scanning the same photo to create a screensaver isn’t stealing… right?
I know someone who reads entire books… little bits at a time… at Barnes & Noble. Is this stealing?
I think, I’m the one that Shannon Popkin is referring to, so here goes… Barnes and Noble encourages this sort of thing by having a cafe and letting everyone look at anything in the store; a service I absolutely love. Similar to the earlier post, I’m a huge fan of the buy a cup of coffee and look at whatever you want. Over, the past 8 years I’ve averaged at least one visit a week to the B&N cafe, so that’s approximately 500 trips * $1.50 per coffee = yikes! $750. When I find a book extremely helpful (granted, I’m the one defining “extremely”), I buy it.
Ken, I thought she meant you, but didn’t want to get in the middle. I think that is clearly okay to read the books. And, I did buy coffee. ..but, it still made me nervous. I didn’t end up using the quote.
I’d like to report that Ken bought TWO cups of coffee (one for me) and ONE very thick book tonight at Barnes & Noble. 🙂 He’s a good guy.