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View Poll Results: Is the Darknet unethical when the book is out of print?
Yes, using the darknet is unethical. 41 19.71%
No, anything that is out of print is fair game. 142 68.27%
Not sure. 25 12.02%
Voters: 208. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 08-24-2010, 04:01 PM   #1
GA Russell
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Do you consider it to be unethical...

Do you consider it to be unethical to download from the darknet a book which is under copyright but currently out of print in all legitimate forms?

PS - This is my first poll, so I am still learning how to do it properly. I believe I have set it so that the voters cannot be identified.

Last edited by GA Russell; 08-24-2010 at 04:05 PM.
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Old 08-24-2010, 04:03 PM   #2
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My personal answer is "yes." As always, your mileage (and ethics) may vary.
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Old 08-24-2010, 04:06 PM   #3
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Yes, but it doesn't prevent me from obtaining a book I want to read that is otherwise unavailable. And unavailable also includes paper.
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Old 08-24-2010, 04:14 PM   #4
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It's really unfortunate that so many great books go out of print and cannot be enjoyed by new readers, but the fact is, somebody owns those copyrights, and it's their decision to not make the text available. Hopefully, with the advent of ereaders, more and more of this stuff will be making a comeback in digital form.

--Maria
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Old 08-24-2010, 04:21 PM   #5
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I think preserving texts is more important than protecting copyright.
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Old 08-24-2010, 04:30 PM   #6
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This question is related to those in a poll that I posted some time ago, although not quite the same question. It would be interesting to do more/wider polls, but the threads often degenerated into in-fighting about what constituted theft etc.

Anyway, in that poll, ~40% thought it OK to copy something that you cannot purchase as an e-book.
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Old 08-24-2010, 05:15 PM   #7
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I see we have a bunch of scofflaws here.

j/k

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Old 08-24-2010, 05:22 PM   #8
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An author or copyright holder has the right to control the book, even if they choose to withhold it from print. Thankfully we have Smashwords and others so that they can get books out there if they wish.
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Old 08-24-2010, 05:24 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by meromana View Post
It's really unfortunate that so many great books go out of print and cannot be enjoyed by new readers, but the fact is, somebody owns those copyrights, and it's their decision to not make the text available.
Well, not necessarily. It can be that nobody knows who owns the copyright. It can also be that the the casue a book is not available is not an active decision but just inertia. Another reason for a book not being available is that a publisher does not think it is economically viable to re-publish it but they want to keep the book so they do not let the rights go back to the writer (by claiming it is still in print but for all practical purposes it is impossible to buy the book).
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Old 08-24-2010, 05:26 PM   #10
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Old 08-24-2010, 05:27 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HistoryWes View Post
An author or copyright holder has the right to control the book, even if they choose to withhold it from print. Thankfully we have Smashwords and others so that they can get books out there if they wish.
Do you mean legal right?

The question was about ethical things. And copyright was intended to make it possible for aothors to earn money for a limited time period. It was not intended for being able to hide a book away. So it is pretty unethical to hide it away,
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Old 08-24-2010, 05:30 PM   #12
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I voted for no. Because I think, if there is NO way you can get a book (digital or print) legally and they have it on darknet, then I don't see any reason it would be unethical to whats that word, "download" the said text. My point is that they don't intend to have another sale either way, so then whats wrong?
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Old 08-24-2010, 05:37 PM   #13
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There was some interesting research on morality which suggested that across cultures there were two broad types of view. One, that we might call "conservatives" emphasised the need to follow social rules in defining what was good/bad. The other, which one might call "liberal" (less common and more recent historically) emphasised whether individuals suffered in defining what was good/bad. An example they gave was gay marriage where the conservative view is bad (breaks the social rules), while the liberal view is good (avoids them suffering). It seemed an interesting analysis to me, and a way of trying to understand what might be going on with the opposing point of view in a moral argument.

In this context, it seems to me that we might have a similar split, with one group advocating following the rules, while another looks at (their view of) who suffers in determining whether something is OK or not. So, the conservative view is copying=bad in this case because it breaks a rule, while the liberal view is copying=ok because there is no alternative offered so nobody suffers (a loss of sale for example).
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Old 08-24-2010, 05:49 PM   #14
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I'm a fan of cheap, schlocky genre paperbacks (westerns, sci-fi, horror, etc). Unfortunately a lot of this stuff not only will never be e-published (is that a verb?) but will also never make it into the Darknet. I'd gladly donate some of my 'forgotten' paperbacks if there was an easy way for them to be converted and live on in the Darknet.
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Old 08-24-2010, 05:58 PM   #15
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Meh, I would disagree with those labels. The original intent of the founding fathers was to have copyright limited to 14 years, I think, then renewable once.

Lifetime is probably fairer to those actually producing the work, though.

The current life +75 system in the US is mostly due to Fritz Hollings, Senator from Disney (and Democrat/Liberal).
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