What's happened?

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by stustaff

I do think its funny that a sharing of real books done by a group of work mates or people who visit a hotel where there is a book share area would receive none of the same 'stigma' that sharing a book online brings.

How about if there was someone standing by the photocopier printing off copies of the books? You think there might be something just a bit wrong with that? Just a little?

If we want the publishers to sell us books that are not so locked under DRM that you can only read one if a uniformed security guard is looking over your shoulder, copying them off for a few million of our closest friends is not the way to go about it.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

How about if there was someone standing by the photocopier printing off copies of the books? You think there might be something just a bit wrong with that? Just a little?

If we want the publishers to sell us books that are not so locked under DRM that you can only read one if a uniformed security guard is looking over your shoulder, copying them off for a few million of our closest friends is not the way to go about it.

I think you kind of missed the entire point of what I said and then only quote part of it, and then added a silly example that was pretty irrelevant.

I said

"I do think its funny that a sharing of real books done by a group of work mates or people who visit a hotel where there is a book share area would receive none of the same 'stigma' that sharing a book online brings.
maybe if people posted their invoice showing they originally purchased the book..."

sharing A book and having proof you paid for it is as close as you could get to lending a physical copy.

I then said

"I lent a guy at work the paperback Enders game the other day. Imagine If I said on here that I would email someone a electronic version of a book I purchased Im sure it would get deleted(and rightly so I understand teh pressures on MR) but it is a little silly."

Again i talked about lending or giving ONE copy to someone and i doubt if I offered ONE copy of each of my electronic books on here that it would be ok?
Yet if i Offered to post a paperback to anyone who wanted it would that get deleted?

I have hundreds of paperbacks in my loft If I gave all 500+ copies away would i get in trouble the same as if I gave away 500 ebooks online?

the isuue is of course with scale. but still no one will ever get in trouble for lending a paper book to 25 people or more via physical sharing.