Solopreneurs Sharing Resources: Analyzing Ethical Scenarios

ethics

Is it okay to share a PDF ebook link?

I recently found myself in an interesting situation/ethical grey area and I wanted to see what the community thinks. I was collaborating with another freelancer and we were each going to buy an ebook (different ebooks, same author) and then exchange and share the PDF links. However, she got nervous because the author had a big disclaimer about punishing violators up to $100,000 for sharing and distributing the link.

Is this wrong?

This scenario has met with VERY different reactions from a few people that I casually polled. One person I know said it was wrong because the author had a disclaimer. Another person said that she thought it was fine and ranted that “solopreneurs and freelancers are already at such a disadvantage because we don’t have collaborative set ups with corporate departments, colleagues and bosses” and that this was as close as we could get and was justified.

I wanted to run some other scenarios by ya’ll to see what you think:

Does it change the situation if these were PHYSICAL books (not ebooks) that we exchanged?
My father-in-law shares his Atlanta Business Chronicle with me when he’s finished reading it. He has a subscription and I don’t - is this wrong?
Certain individuals in a LinkedIn group that I’m a part of are going to get together occasionally and share resources such as magazine subscriptions, reports, and other paying items.
Sharing a PDF transcript link from a teleseminar I paid to attend.
Sharing a PDF transcript from a teleseminar that was free.
Attending a paying seminar and then making a copy of the handouts with a colleague or friend.

How do these scenarios change if the sharing was going on between coworkers vs. independent freelancers? I’d love to hear what ya’ll think about any of the scenarios.

Thanks!