Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
The same applies to CDs. How can one ever be sure that the person selling the CD hasn't kept a copy of the CD?
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And that's why Dutch government has invented the so called
home-copy-levy (if Google-translate has given me an non-understandable word: I mean a kind of tax). In the Netherlands it is (still) allowed to make a home-copy of a cd or anything like it.
It is not allowed to publish or sell that copy, nor is it allowed to decode it if it is in any way copy-protected.
Still, nobody can just plainly know if you did not make a copy, en keep using that, actually today that is allowed! You can also copy, for example, the music to your computer, and use it. You are also allowed to download music from the internet, and use it. You are obviously not allowed to upload music to the internet for publication-purposes, hence using a torrent-client for downloading puts you in a split situation.
Copy-ing of hardcopy books is also allowed for personal use, as far as I know.
Copy-ing of software is only allowed for backup-reasons. You are not allowed to use the copy if the original is not licensed to you. Downloading is not allowed.
Probably, the same is applicable for ebooks. If it's not licensed to you, you are not allowed to read it, hence it is very important how the license looks like. The prohibition of removing copy-protection applies to all examples, I think. I actually don't know about the legal status of downloading ebooks.