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Should ebook users have any rights?

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wraith808:
Librarians and Readers against DRM

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110307/14190413389/librarians-against-drm.shtml

superboyac:
As Reddit threads are wont to do, the discussion of spendy e-books quickly changes direction as the first commenter asks, "Is it morally wrong to purchase a paper copy of the book and torrent the ebook?"

That's a good question, I think, and one debated not just by a bevvy of Reddit users in the thread, but answered by the ethicist Randy Cohen in The New York Times last year, who (in case you were wondering) said that pirating a copy of an e-book, one that you already own in print format - was not unethical.

Illegal, yes. Unethical, no.
--- End quote ---
What a frustrating situation to be in as a consumer.  On one hand, you don't want to do anything illegal.  On the other hand, attempting to do something that is ethical so that your needs are met is illegal.  Other than just taking it up the ass by the big companies, what else can we do?  Again, we are not trying to intentionally do something illegal.  I don't know...I can't think of a perfect solution.

johnk:
What a frustrating situation to be in as a consumer.  On one hand, you don't want to do anything illegal.  On the other hand, attempting to do something that is ethical so that your needs are met is illegal.
-superboyac (March 10, 2011, 12:18 PM)
--- End quote ---

I think people worry about this too much. Let's go back in time. Way back when the VCR was at the cutting edge of technology, people used to swap video tapes all the time. If you missed an episode of your favourite programme, you went into the office the next day and got a tape from someone who had recorded it.

This was entirely, unambiguously, unlawful (I'm talking about UK law here). But everyone did it. No one was ever prosecuted. Why? Because no court in the land would ever find someone guilty of a crime, and the copyright holders knew it.

Fast forward a few years, and people started making copies of their music CDs for personal use, as MP3s, or CD copies for the car, or whatever. Again entirely illegal. No prosecutions. Same reason. In fact, in the UK at least, the music companies have said that they will not prosecute people for copying their own CDs. Because they know it would be a waste of time.

The real problem here is that, in the UK at least, the copyright law is so out of date. The only protection given to consumers as far as copying copyrighted works is concerned is the right to record TV programmes to watch later. That's it. And that law is more than 20 years old. And because the government has failed to produce modern laws based on principles of fair use, people are having to make it up for themselves as they go along. That's not necessarily a bad thing. At least it seems to have worked so far.

zridling:
But in order to read a kindle book, I need a kindle reader, right? ACTA alone is a dark new world designed to cut off access to works around the world. It's a shame this is the crap the US is exportting around the globe.

wraith808:
But in order to read a kindle book, I need a kindle reader, right? ACTA alone is a dark new world designed to cut off access to works around the world. It's a shame this is the crap the US is exportting around the globe.
-zridling (March 10, 2011, 10:19 PM)
--- End quote ---

Actually, you can use any kindle software- you don't have to buy the hardware.

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