Re: NY Times Ethicist Condones Ripping Off E-books

On Mon, 19 Apr 2010, joseph harris wrote:

> Any permission to make one's own copy is an invitation to pirates.

Does this include the day after the work enters the public domain? Also - what 
if it was a transfer, not a copy? (that is, if the original was destroyed in 
the process?)

Of course, this supposes the pirates were waiting for an invitation. I think 
its pretty clear they were not. I don't think they were even waiting for an 
electronic version.

In general, any focus on *technical* copy control raises other risks.

Modern digital systems create copies - in many forms, and in many ways. And 
although many of these copies are temporary, even small errors on a computer 
can make transient and ephemeral copies into permanent ones. Copying is 
fundamental to a computer's operation - right down to the lowest level of the 
processor, where almost *all* instructions are about copying something from one 
place into another.

Much as you would like copy control in some fashion - perhaps even in the form 
of copy counts - you can't do that in digital systems without risking the 
reliability and robustness of systems that people depend on. Once a digital 
copy exists - authorized or not - copy control becomes almost impossible.

I'm not condoning the unauthorized copying, but condemning it won't make it go 
away, and might even contribute to proliferation. Moreover, at some point in 
it's life, every book enters the public domain, and at that point the creator 
may not restrict copying.

As far as I can tell, the only time that copy control works is at the point 
where the creator controls the only copy.


: chris smith ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
: nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit - cicero :


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