Is it ok to take magazines from lobbies?

If you’re a thief then yeah :)

I think if the mag is like all torn up and 3 months out of date then maybe, but still. Go buy your own!

Nope. I don’t see why that would be ok. Maybe I would ask for a photocopy of an article, or stick around to read it, or make note of it. I just can’t understand what would give me the right to take it.

I think they should not be taken.

The office/place of business has paid money for them for all of their customers’ enjoyment…not just one person.

They should go buy their own copy of the magazine if they feel that attached to it….

It’s stealing. When I have been interested in something I read, I’ve asked for the magazine, and most times they said yes. So why steal when you can simply ask for what you want or buy your own copy?

No, because they pay money to subscribe to these magazines so technichally its considered stealing.

No, unless it says, “Compliments of…” on the cover.

Why stop at the magazines? That lamp might look good in your living room. Could you use an extra chair? How about that painting?

generally, no.

If everyone did that there would be nothing left to read.

its my understanding that the magazines are there for the pleasure of the people who must wait in the lobby. So taking it home because you enjoy an article in it seems narcistic. So no.

Maybe if it’s an old edition and there is a newer one available. But in general no. You could always ask the receptionist if you could keep that copy of the magazine.

Does it belong to you? If not, don’t take it.

I always take them. You know how moralistic I am? Me too. In this case, I figure I pay the damn dentist plenty. Those mags are mine.

In my defense, I bring in week- or month-old copies of the New Yorker and the Atlantic and other uppity mags that the dentist, the lube people, etc., never offer. I think it’s a good trade.

Still wrong.

No. What are the other people going to read while they wait in your lobby?

i smell a petty larceny charge

Well, I take them and I’m not going to stop. I also regularly drop off my own stacks of subscriptions in various lobbies. I feel NO guilt.

Lack of a feeling of guilt does not prove that what you are doing is right. Anyone with an underdeveloped moral sense or a contempt for the rights of other people can evade feelings of guilt. Leaving your old recyclables and taking away the latest issues, which someone has paid to provide for his or her clients, is not a huge crime, but it has more in common with the attitude of Wall Street profiteers than of people I would choose as an example to others.

I would never take a magazine from a waiting area…not even those that are clearly donated copies. I have asked to take them home and return them on one or two occassions, and they said I could keep them. Why not just ask?

@jeruba: never said I thought it was right. Said I do it.

I’m with Jeruba on this one. If it’s not yours to take and you take it, it’s theft, plain and simple.

No, it’s not OK. They aren’t a magazine stand. They’re a doctors office or whatever.

It is most definitely stealing. I say take as many as you can. The information you get from those magazines is invariably better than the magazines you buy yourself.

I’ve always taken newspapers and magazines from restaurants but never waiting rooms or lobbies. Some they have newspapers and magazines by the door.

And anyway, I’m sure they wouldn’t miss them if you did take them. Are they seriously going to go to the trouble of finding out who stole their magazines?

To recap what other Jellies said, you’re basically asking if stealing is OK. If you can live with yourself than sure.