Believe me, I know. I used to make my living selling a book. Guess how long that lasted.

So the answer to your question is one of these, depending on your personal viewpoint.

1. Obviously it's blatant theft.

2. "Information should be free."

(My glibness stems from the fact that this has surely been litigated to death by now.)

> Information should be free.

Healthcare should be free.

Food and shelter should be free.

“Should” is doing a lot of work there. Meanwhile in reality, creating and organizing information requires scarce labor which deserves compensation.

	▲	dolorian 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Information is free. It costs approximately nothing to duplicate it and its value is approximately nothing. You may think the publication "should" be paid every time someone reads their slop, but in reality that's not how it works. The bulk of the value these publications provide is in pumping out ads or propaganda. Advertisers will pay more to advertise to people who pay money to whoever asks, so the newspapers ask you to pay. Healthcare is not free to provide, but it is cheaper and more effective with the free flow of information. Same for agriculture and the production of housing.