LotR on-line gambling

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Mnemosyne

I think part of the issue here is on the consumer's side of the equation. If I spend my money on a Tolkien-themed painting, yes, I'm out money, but in exchange for that I get... a Tolkien-themed painting. Of course I should hope that the artist did so more out of love for Tolkien than love for profit--and on the internet, it would be easy enough to check for that as a lot of current fanartists just put their stuff up on DeviantArt (and other sites) for free. But if it's a good painting, and I want to encourage someone to continue painting in that style, with that topic and those characters, I wouldn't mind spending my money and owning one of those paintings--even if it's just a print that I could have ripped for myself from the internet.

Well, just a note - my point in that case was about the painter, not about me. From my point of view, I cannot tell if he really does it out of love or for profit, but he knows. It's just a question of principle.

And as for the power of the consumer, I agree to an extent. Of course you don't have to play slot machines at all, but with many things you more or less have to do them, use them, buy them, but still your choice might be only between two main brands of stuff in the shop...

But whatever, let's not stray into out of topic debates... this was just to clarify what I have mentioned earlier.