Re: NY Times Ethicist Condones Ripping Off E-books

From: "Robotech_Master" 
> On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 10:41 AM, Marion Gropen <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> I contend that, if the zeitgeist comes to see copyright violation as
>> wrong, most people won't do it.
>>
>> The problem isn't ONLY that it's easy, but ALSO that it's acceptable.
>> And it should not be.
> 
> I would lay at least some of the blame for this squarely at the feet
> of the major publishers, software companies, and industry associations
> whose names end in "AA". It seems like over the last twenty years or
> so they've attempted to make every possible end run they can around
> the rights consumers are permitted by law. That pesky "first sale"
> thing? Counter it with click-through or shrinkwrapped licensing
> agreements. Used software sales? Build in single-use access codes.
> Create new media formats every few years, so consumers have to buy
> their entire media library over again several times. Encumber newer
> digital formats with DRM and make the DRM illegal to break, ostensibly
> to prevent copying (since, after all, home cassette taping killed the
> music industry, and videotaping TV shows to skip the commercials meant
> that nobody could sell anything on TV anymore), but also to eliminate
> a number of uses consumers had been accustomed to making with their
> previous media (such as back-ups and format shifting).
> 
> When consumers see the rights they've come to take for granted being
> taken away from them, they feel justified in breaking the law to
> exercise the rights they feel they are supposed to have. And if *that*
> copyright violation isn't wrong, then maybe this *other* copyright
> violation isn't wrong either.
> 
> -- 
> Chris Meadows aka         | WWW: http://www.terrania.us      | Somebody
> Robotech_Master           | ICQ: 5477383  AIM: RoboMastr     | help, I'm
> [email protected] | Skype, LJ-Gizmo: Robotech_Master | trapped in
> [email protected]        | Facebook: Robotech.Master        | a sig file!

I'm sorry Chris, but there is a big divide between feeling aggrieved, and breaking the law, civil or criminal. There is also a world of difference between the software, the visual and the music industries and books. 

Nothing you say above justifies stealing written works - nor actually anything else. But I would like to know just what 'rights' you feel have been taken away. You range across a whole load of quite different fields, even if copyright law is used in each. You also condemn major players, but make no allowance for the real fact that your approach hurts the creators and the small players in publishing.

There is a simple matter of contract. You don't like the terms, you don't buy. But not liking the terms does not give a reason, excuse or justification for stealing the product involved. This is a matter of principle and applies to all goods and purchases of them.

You seem to be pushing here the argument 'I want, I take'. DRM was dropped because it harmed sales. Free ebooks and much else free on the net is going because it is a nonsensical business model. Marion has commented on the effect of your approach on creativity and the culture. The culture is a living thing, not just past record. This is what is recognised i n the US Constition and i n the 1710 Act of Queen Anne and in the Berne Convention.

I find you argument a bit like the Lorelei, urging sailors onto the rocks.

Joseph

Joseph Harris - Debt Control Man
http://www.controlyourdebtcrisis.co.uk
Author: Control Your Debt Crisis on Your Own Terms


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

------------------------------------------------------
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/