Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
Aha, this is a common argument. As I've been told many times, copyright infringement is not theft. But it is a form of property offense: an offense that can only occur AFTER you have acquired the property.
I can legally buy an ebook without committing theft: but then I can strip the DRM , post it on my pirate web site, or distribute it to all my Twitter followers. That's copyright infringement.
Copyright infringement measures, by their very nature , can only work (if they work at all) AFTER you have acquired the item.
If you follow your argument (" I bought it, I should be able to do anything I want with it" ) to its logical conclusion, the notion of copyright itself would be illegitimate. ( A poster named Giggleton argues precisely this ).
|
Being able to have unlimited personal (personal being defined as me, myself) use of bought material isn't a bad thing. If you do a search in the forums you will find the same sentiment expressed by not only Giggleton and me, but by many posters here.
At present I only have one e-reader. If something happens to my T1 e-reader (say it gets smashed to smithereens on pavement) and some well meaning person happens to buy me a sympathy gift of a Kindle, any DRM materials are no not legally transferable to my now new Kindle.
The only things I could convert and put on my new Kindle would be the DRM free books I've bought or downloaded from MR and PG. My legally bought DRM materials would still be unreachable by me, the person who would have bought them.
However, if some vandal breaks into my house and trashes my bookshelf, I can still take my copy of "The Outlander" off my pile of rubble and read it until I get a new bookshelf.