by Newly Enlightened 277 Replies latest members private
Well the suggestion has been made that the cost of the book is strictly to cover the printing costs , at $10 US
to me that seems like there is an over amount to the cost of printing, that's what I'm trying to investigate.
As to the legality of what this person is doing is separate in itself and is again questionable.
It is an attempt to illustrate that it is unlikely any money in "profit" is being made by the bootleggers. As if that lessens the crime. Or I am completely wrong and it is to illustrate that profits are being made. Still a crime.
No, that is correct. It is still wrong even if nothing is charged for it. The potential loss is the sales denied to the copyright holder, not the profit that someone else has or hasn't made. Even if being given away free by the copyright holder, piracy prevents them controlling their name and brand and promoting what they want to promote. That's why the money itself isn't the entirety of the matter.
An example of the branding / messaging being subverted is the logo which implies some affiliation or endorsement. Given that Ray Franz and his wife, as I understand, still very much held Christian beliefs up to their passing then I doubt that is something that would have been given (before you even get into the likelihood based on personal character).
I found this topic from 6 years ago with Ray's personal response on the pdf's: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/186021/posting-links-downloads-r-franz-books-coc-isocf
Great find - it shows clearly how dismayed Ray was with people copying his work without permission.
Does anyone know why Commentary Press isn't offering the downloads anymore?
Creating and maintaining a website and handling payments can take some time and effort. Maybe Ray was the driver for it being up and those concerned since didn't know who to turn to or turned to someone and were let down.
It's far easier and cheaper to sell things online now than it was even just 5 years ago. I would be more than happy to setup a site to support Ray's legacy if they wanted which would be free to host and would deposit payments directly into their bank account (the only cost would be the Stripe / PayPal processing fee for each sale). This could easily support multiple currencies and require limited support (auto download a signed PDF after purchase).
Maybe his friends from Romania play loose as a goose with the laws there maybe it's common to do so.
Doesn't make it right though, Cedars should know better.
That seals it for me. I demand Cedars remove his bootleg videos and advertisements for bootleg distribution along with his rant on JWSurvey.
Ray has spoken from the grave.
Well that settles that, no argument there.
The petty holier than thou grovelling on this thread reminds me why I found the cloying desperation to be seen as "the goodest kid in the sweet shop" so suffocating in the halls.
I await my share of insults now but I shall not bother to reply to them.
Simon - It's far easier and cheaper to sell things online now than it was even just 5 years ago. I would be more than happy to setup a site to support Ray's legacy if they wanted which would be free to host and would deposit payments directly into their bank account (the only cost would be the Stripe / PayPal processing fee for each sale). This could easily support multiple currencies and require limited support (auto download a signed PDF after purchase).
You will have my full support and I would love to contribute (I am web developer). So, we might have 2 nice initiatives if all goes well:
Someone needs to talk to Deborah!
The pdf's were available at commentarypress.com from 2008 to 2012 for the reasonable price of $ 7.95 (https://web.archive.org/web/20121015142946/http://www.commentarypress.com/Publication/English.html)
Maybe the mix of books and pdfs meant that when there was no one able to maintain it and so everything was taken down. Selling physical copies at any kind of volume and not 'on demand' like you can now would be a lot more work.
Selling it for just $7.95 tells me that Ray wasn't doing it for the money but at the same time his other reply earlier showed he cared greatly about his work.
