> - In theory, you need to purchase a multi-user license if more than one person should be allowed to read the pdf in your company (hint: nobody purchases the multi-user license).
How does the law treat this differently from a book? You can buy a book and then give or sell it to whomever you wish without any restrictions... how is this different?
When you try to compare digital downloads to physical media that isn't easy to copy, like books, most of the logic falls apart just like that.
Then there's also another side to digital distribution, especially in entertainment — if you bought a (heavily DRM'ed) video game, or a movie, or a book, or something else, online, it's tied to your account. You can't lend whatever it is you bought to a friend like you absolutely could the same exact thing on a physical medium. You can't resell it either. You also rely on the mercy of the seller to not pull your access to the thing. Yet, even though it lacks this basic trait of a physical medium, sellers treat digital and physical as mostly the same thing.
Oh shoot, sorry, I just realized I got confused. I misinterpreted the original comment (about the PDF) to mean that you're supposed to buy multiple physical copies too, and that nobody does that either. If that's not the case then that would explain it. Though then the question would be—is it not worth just buying the physical copy and passing it around?
How does the law treat this differently from a book? You can buy a book and then give or sell it to whomever you wish without any restrictions... how is this different?