Quote:
Originally Posted by Randeep
Is that what the law says? I've never heard that before. But that is what many people here are saying: if you want to make your own digital copy, then fine. There's a flaw here too, someone else has made a digital copy already. In the case of the CD, it's akin to my owning a CD, and then copying the mp3 album from another server or friend.
Well if someone has made the eBook already and I download that, why is that any worse than if I created my own e-book? Are we suggesting that having to perform the labor of the media's creation legitimizes its ownership?
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Yes, provided that
you are the legal owner of the physical source product in question. This is the key point that I always try to go by and is my understanding of this stuff.
The folks have already tried to explain this to you - the phrase "format shift" is exceptionally good IMO.
You BUY a copy of Windows, you are legally entitled to make a backup/archive copy of it. While manufacturers of computers are skimping these days and no longer including physical copies of the OS with your purchase, all include software for you to burn your own copy for backup.
You BUY a copy of Opeth's new album, you are entitled to make backup copies of the CD and also to format shift to whatever file type you need for your players.
You BUY a copy of Stephen King's new pbook, [I believe] you are entitled to format shift/make a digital copy of the book for your OWN consumption. [If not the case, that I can legally do this, then even I now have a huge problem with this].
You go to your local library and BORROW Opeth's new album or King's new book and you are NOT legally entitled to scan/format shift anything. You didn't BUY it.
Your example makes a sort of sense - I do see what you are saying and not trying to jump down your throat.
However, you know that guy you downloaded King's ebook from? He has no legal right to distribute it to anyone else so you shouldn't be able to get it in the first place. Just as you don't have a legal right to buy King's pbook, scan it and then distribute it online.
I ain't no angel, but I generally try to play by the rules, for better or worse.
The rules suck? Work to change 'em.
And I predict that the pbook/ebook package deals mentioned earlier by other people will indeed be something that happens and becomes commonplace - quite soon if not already. Then we will all be reading stories of technophobe readers who are protesting that they have to pay for an electronic format that they will never use [unless separate combo pricing packages are created].