08-24-2007, 01:29 PM | #121 | |
Addict
Posts: 303
Karma: 187
Join Date: Dec 2006
Device: Sony Reader
|
Quote:
My sense of morality understands that laws are imperfect. You can't write a legislation that says, for example, "well, if a guy honestly didn't know he was breaking the law then you let him off." It's logistics, practicalities. You don't know who's lying. So you write a law that says, "professed ignorance is always ignored" and send everyone to jail. There's many other such examples too. It's understandable. But only an idiot thinks it's Right or ideal. So, if you are lawyer representing pdf-tools.com, or a judge, then I could see why you insist on sticking to the letter. But if you're just a guy, then you have a really misplaced sense of morality in thinking that actions which definately (not just sort of) don't hurt anyone are nevertheless Wrong in the ethical sense. You're just not thinking clearly. p.s. for those who'd like the background: rasterfarian makes use of pdinfo.exe to read the bookmarks in a pdf. It is the only commandline tool that i've found after extensive searching that does this simple task. pdinfo.exe is one of about a dozen executables that are packaged as a single product by pdf-tools.com called "command-line tools." This simple package retails for $360 per user, obviously targeted at businesses who could try to justify something like this (and the high cost arises not from how difficult it is to create the product but rather the dynamics of how much businesses would pay). Now I'm not going to criticize how pdf-tools would like to make money, or our as-yet imperfect capitalism for not being empowered by fluid competition so that the price of things becomes their cost. That doesn't matter right now. Rather, it's pretty obvious that redistributing this tiny subset of a product that is targeted at a completely different market has caused pdf-tools.com no damages (and I say that with precision). On the flipside, this redistribution has considerably enhanced the RasterFarian tool that was created and is distributed for free for no reason other than to aid others. If the golden rule of morality is that "the Right is that which increases the sum of the Good in the world relative to its Ills," then pretty clearly what i've done here is good. The fact that the law can't be written to be so nuanced is understandable. Yet people who think that what's been written down is infallible, are not. This is what I mean when I say your morality is misplaced. Now that your actions have caused RasterFarian to no longer be offered for download, you have clearly done a significant number of people harm. What you've done is, obviously, legal. But was it ethical? Unfortunately, it is also in my legal power to forbid you from using RasterFarian. Do I consider this ethical? Certainly not. It is an empty, unfair act meant to hurt. It's also silly that I've been given the power to boss you around in this way. But it's legal. Now I wonder, would you obey or be a hypocrite? Last edited by alex_d; 08-24-2007 at 01:40 PM. |
|
08-24-2007, 01:40 PM | #122 |
Addicted to Porting
Posts: 1,697
Karma: 7194
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Device: iRex iLiad, Nokia 770, Samsung i760
|
Morality issues aside, in the US, distributing someone else's copyrite work without their express consent is illegal. Mobileread does not want to be held liable for that, which is why it will not be available on this site.
|
Advert | |
|
08-24-2007, 01:41 PM | #123 |
creator of calibre
Posts: 43,860
Karma: 22666666
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Mumbai, India
Device: Various
|
Alex you could try opening a ticket asking for that feature at http://podofo.sourceforge.net/. It's under active development, so you may get lucky.
|
08-24-2007, 01:59 PM | #124 |
Guru
Posts: 714
Karma: 1014039
Join Date: May 2007
Device: Sony PRS-500, Sony PRS-505, Kindle 3, Sony PRS350, iPad 64GB
|
Simple solution. Don't distribute the pdf-tools with the package, and point the user to the pdf-tools.com website, telling them how to download the trial version and how to install the files.
RasterFarian will still work the way it is. If the user decides to buy the tool, it's his/her own choice. |
08-24-2007, 02:01 PM | #125 | |
Guru
Posts: 714
Karma: 1014039
Join Date: May 2007
Device: Sony PRS-500, Sony PRS-505, Kindle 3, Sony PRS350, iPad 64GB
|
Quote:
|
|
Advert | |
|
08-24-2007, 02:05 PM | #126 |
Addicted to Porting
Posts: 1,697
Karma: 7194
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Device: iRex iLiad, Nokia 770, Samsung i760
|
|
08-24-2007, 02:08 PM | #127 | |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 74,027
Karma: 129333114
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
Quote:
|
|
08-24-2007, 02:13 PM | #128 | |
Guru
Posts: 714
Karma: 1014039
Join Date: May 2007
Device: Sony PRS-500, Sony PRS-505, Kindle 3, Sony PRS350, iPad 64GB
|
Quote:
|
|
08-24-2007, 02:58 PM | #129 |
creator of calibre
Posts: 43,860
Karma: 22666666
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Mumbai, India
Device: Various
|
|
08-24-2007, 04:02 PM | #130 | ||||||||
Junior Member
Posts: 6
Karma: 1138
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: San Jose, CA
Device: PRS500
|
Morality and Intellectual Property...
Since I'm the one who brought this whole mess out in the open, I feel obligated to respond to this posting.
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Mark |
||||||||
08-25-2007, 11:37 AM | #131 |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
Mark,
You've done absolutely the right thing here. This type of thing could get MobileRead shut down in an instant. As a MobileRead Editor, I would personally and publically like to thank you for bringing this to our attention in the way that you did, and to say how bad I feel about the abuse that has come your way as a result. You have absolutely nothing to apologise to anyone for - we all owe you a debt of gratitude. |
08-25-2007, 01:51 PM | #132 |
Bookworm
Posts: 113
Karma: 154
Join Date: Aug 2007
Device: Sony CLIE NX80V, PRS-500
|
How can I download the 2.5beta? I saw this notice before the attachements:
"Attachments Pending Approval" And the attachments are not clickable. Thanks, - Mark |
08-25-2007, 01:55 PM | #133 |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
All attachments in this thread have been "unapproved" and can no longer be downloaded.
|
08-25-2007, 02:09 PM | #134 |
Bookworm
Posts: 113
Karma: 154
Join Date: Aug 2007
Device: Sony CLIE NX80V, PRS-500
|
OK. I see. Sorry I didn't follow the thread to the end and didn't see all the arguments. Hopefully someday the package can be released without the pdf tools. I am a licensed pdf tools user and can use RasterFarian over it.
|
08-26-2007, 05:02 AM | #135 |
Fully Converged
Posts: 18,163
Karma: 14021202
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Switzerland
Device: Too many to count here.
|
Beside finding an open-source alternative, this is also one of the ideas I had and suggested to alex_d. alex, I am still waiting for your response
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Beta Beta Test of Major New Features | Starson17 | Calibre | 45 | 05-17-2010 10:55 AM |
PRS-500 RasterFarian patched and available again! | NatCh | Sony Reader Dev Corner | 7 | 05-25-2009 05:16 PM |
PRS-500 rasterfarian question | drogo | Sony Reader Dev Corner | 2 | 10-05-2007 10:18 AM |
PRS-500 Crop in RasterFarian 2.5 | ddavtian | Sony Reader Dev Corner | 4 | 08-01-2007 07:40 PM |
RasterFarian V2.5 Beta for Sony Reader released | Alexander Turcic | Sony Reader | 0 | 04-17-2007 02:53 PM |