Re: book piracy, law, morality and copyright history (was What kinds of Books are pirated and made into EBooks?)

On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 4:52 AM, joseph harris <[email protected]> wrote:
> First - and I was disappointed to find myself disagreeing violently with Erica - many
> comments are entirely America-centric. This means the understanding of copyright law is
> deficient. Consequenly the understanding of its history and nature is also deficient.

I apologize for the US-centric statements; I should at the least have
qualified them. I have some potential quibbles over the history of
copyright (I don't use the term to refer to conditions before 1710, no
matter how well-supported by the church), but agree with at least the
general concepts. (Including the realization that Google is trying to
do a run-around of copyright law. I think their goals are laudable and
their methods are deeply flawed.)

> In essence the community value in copyright is to further culture and invention; the realisation
> is that no one is going to write or invent if their work is just stolen, and their time remain
> unrewarded. Fairly obvious.

We agree on this.

> The only effective way - in a free society - to achieve this without some form of censorship
> is the copyright system; at least I await any better proposal.

Less agreement here. There are other methods--patronage, for example
(which can encourage censorship but theoretically no more than the
open market--if the buyer doesn't want to pay for it, it won't be
produced), or subscription-based releases (when 150 people have paid
for the next chapter, it'll be published), and probably some
unexplored digital possibilities. But I agree that copyright is the
best method we've found for striking a balance between rewarding
creators and getting content to the public.

Much of my disagreements stem from the length of current copyrights,
gradually increased from "time to likely make a profit" to "time for
blockbuster creations to wring every shred of profit out of the
public."

> First Xerox offered a very easy way round this with the photo-copying machines [though not
> their first ones ;-)]. This was stamped on and this is now policed by industry organisations.

And yet Xerox copies abound. Many students copy a chapter of a book to
mark up for a class, or the entire book. Many gamers copy rules so
that every player has a set in front of him. Cooks copy recipes to
avoid risking getting the book splashed while cooking.

While AFAIK no sensible author objects to these uses, *they are still
copyright infringement*, at least hypothetically. (How much of a book
may be copied for class use is entirely unknown until someone gets
sued and gets a ruling on it.) Until fair use laws are clear and
reasonable, copyright protection will continue to erode. When people
don't understand the law, they're more prone to break it... and right
now, *nobody* understands the limits of copyright law.

[insert six-page entirely tangential rant about fanfiction here]

> The internet and the digital file offers a new easy copy system. This is in process of
> being stamped on, and for the same reasons as before, and under the same
> understandings about invention and culture.

The stampings will be ineffective as long as various types of copying
fall into the same legal niche. Right now, there's no legal difference
between someone who places 500 currently-being-sold ebooks into the
torrent network, someone who does the same with scans of out-of-print
comics from a bankrupt company, and someone who copies a dozen
publisher-released freebie ebooks from her hard drive to her friend's
hard drive.

> Book piracy, illegal copying, breach of law stand where they have always been, the territory
> of the dishonest.  Which brings in the moral dimension. In the west this conjures up the Ten
> Commandments, but similar basic principles exist in all cultures and major religions.

"Illegal" copying is what local law says is illegal. (Not every nation
is a member of the Berne convention.) And right now, it's unclear what
illegal copying is.

I have a Sony Reader, three computers (two desktops & a laptop), a
Clie PDA, and a Rocketbook. I also have a couple of portable drives
used for backups. Can I legally copy the same ebook to each of them?
Can I then loan one of them out to a family member? A friend? Can I
log into the computer from another location, and read that
way--without downloading anything? Can I let someone else log into it?

At which point does a copy become illegal? More importantly: *where
can I find the law* that tells me at which point copying becomes
illegal? How can I *know* which of my copies is legal, and which is
not?

If converting and copying a book to my Rocketbook to let my daughter
read it is illegal (which seems to be what some of the ebook stores I
buy from are saying), and potentially subject to a fine of $150,000,
then why should I mind uploading hundreds of ebooks across the torrent
networks? (I don't do this. I can parse a difference between the two
acts, even if the law can't.)

These words are being copied across dozens, perhaps hundreds of
servers. Can I say, as author of them, "AOL's servers are not
permitted to carry my words?" Can I, a year from now, contact Yahoo
and insist they remove all copies of my words from their servers, or
sue them for each copy that can be found?

Computers have *broken* the basic premises on which copyright law is
founded: the concept that copying takes valuable resources, that
making a copy is an act of effort. Copies are never going to be harder
to make; that's not the direction technology goes.

To make sure creators (and publishers who find, edit & promote them)
get paid, we'll have to find methods other than "punish everyone who
makes copies in ways that weren't easily available 80 years ago."

> The reason is very simple to understand. They are the principles on which society can
> operate. Without observance of them society falls apart.

We may have some agreement here. We are at a cusp point: the
foundations of industry and communication have had drastic changes,
and our legal system is trying to catch up to them. In some places,
it's applying a framework that no longer fits our world.

> This is easy to understand if one realises they are really extensions of
> a simple four letter word - trust. Our daily lives are only possible is we are able to trust.

*cough*

> The moment trust is broken suspicion steps in. Thus Bill, the sower of winds, is someone
> we cannot trust. If he will take books which do not belong to him, and for which he has no
> permission to do so, what else will he take just because he wants it?

It depends on what ethics Bill is using when he "takes" those books.
Does he believe he has the right to grab anything he has the power to
get (which would indeed be frightening)? Or does he believe he has a
right to it if it doesn't deprive anyone else of its use? Or does he
think he's justified in taking something if the author/publisher is
"ripping him off," or does he believe they should provide a certain
amount of entertainment for free, and he should be part of that?

Knowing *why* he is making unauthorized copies is a big part of
figuring out how to stop him--or more importantly, the thousands like
him who don't bother to speak up on ebook forums.

Yelling at Bill will get him to shut up. He may leave the board. If
someone were particularly clever, perhaps his IP address could be
traced and he might be sued for copyright infringement (although I
doubt that). But that won't fix the actual problem. To make progress
towards getting authors & publishers paid what they're due, they/we
will need to understand why people who would never steal a candy bar
will happily download 50 ebooks from Mediafire.

And the goal should be, "get authors & publishers paid," not, "punish
the ones who make unauthorized/ illegal copies." If punishing the
rulebreakers helps, that's great--but if punishing them doesn't
increase the likelihood of payments in the future, it's pointless.

> Apologies for the pomposity and length; but years of arguing these matters bring me
> back again and again to the fundamentals: law? or Mad Max?

When the law is placed in the service of the wealthy and powerful to
the detriment of the poor and oppressed, I'm on the Mad Max side of
things.

Which doesn't mean I think copyright law is entirely doing that--but I
believe parts of it are. Big companies get away with copyright
infringements that they sue individuals for, because suing for
infringement was designed to be done at a corporate level. False DMCA
takedown notices are almost impossible to prosecute, regardless of how
much damage they do. Copyright law supports the right to put DRM on
digital content, but many corporations are unwilling to release
content without the DRM, even if the authors request it--proving that
the purpose of DRM is not "to prevent unuathorized copies," but to
limit the end-user's rights and expectation of rights to manage their
purchases.

And heh, that's before we get into the whole "remix culture" tangle of issues.

I'm in favor of laws--that serve the people in their countries. Not
laws that serve whatever organizations have the most money & political
power.


-- 
"I follow Eris blindly in all things. That She is the Goddess of Chaos
simplifies this immensely."  -- Christian the Pagan


------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Post a message:   ebook-community [[at]] *
Unsubscribe:      ebook-community-unsubscribe [[at]] *
Switch to digest: ebook-community-digest [[at]] *
Switch to normal: ebook-community-normal [[at]] *
Put mail on hold: ebook-community-nomail [[at]] *
Administrator:    ebook-community-owner [[at]] *

(* == yahoogroups.com)
-------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    [email protected] 
    ebook-community-fullfeatured-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ebook-community-unsubscribe-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/