Quote:
Originally Posted by Nathanael
Let's restrict ourselves to US copyright law, not nebulous blanket statements. And that is exactly what US copyright law says: it is illegal to copy without permission IP you don't own unless....
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Unless it's fair use. Whether fair use is a defense against the claim of infringement, or an area copyright law does not cover, is debated by a lot of lawyers.
I could go through point-by-point and bring up counter-examples, but I'm not inclined to waste time on it. I don't think I'm going to convince you. I don't think you're going to convince me. There is no "win the argument" at stake; we're not in court seeking a ruling. I suspect we've both brought up enough details for people interested in copyright law to make up their own mind, or do further research on their own.
It's a rather pointless topic to do detailed arguments over (I consider what we've done so far to be introductory arguments); no corporation, no author, is attempting to track down individuals who've copied books for their own personal use. And copyright law, being civil rather than criminal, doesn't trigger state activity; the IP owner has to file suit for a wrongdoing to be legally acknowledged.
Whether or not photocopying a book could be prosecuted, it's not going to be, unless that copy somehow becomes public.