@ Geppetto
Well.....finally a proper topic (and a beloved one).
The copyright is a controversial issue since the moment it was invented.
In the modern times, first it was just one law in US. Then became a cluster of laws in US.
Then became a pack of laws admitted internationally in essence but very different from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Today there are international aggreements (especially by regions) but the method of implementation and control is also very different from a country to another.
For example in my country the Law of Copyright is very young, is just 10 years old and the law with the methodology of application (because any law is useless and cannot be applied without another law, a twin law which contains the methodology) was not officially released until today. So the law cannot be applied yet.
But.....once my country became a part of the European Union is supposed to apply the European legislation altough European Union does not oblige the countries members to adopt european laws letter by letter........ so the european laws don't rule in a particular country.
Sooo....I agree with you.... It is a mess !
My point in all of this is that legally, at this moment, there is no punishment for lending or gifting a book (even a digital book) to a friend (because thats the issue we talk here....lending and gifting books....its not the case of selling them, I dont want to sell them in any way). I didnt hear yet of somebody legally punished in European Union for lending digital books (maybe you are more informed than me so please tell me if I am wrong).
I heard of legal punishment just for plagiarism.....but that's a totally different issue.
Ok..... thats what I had to say about the legal issue. Now the "moral" issue:
The moral issue reffers to the moral financial rights of the authors (if morality has something in common with money
).
This is a real and hot topic.....everybody discusses it....there are congresses and symposiums on this theme.
I am inside this "movement" because I am also an amateur artist, musician and writter (a very very bad one
) and I discussed this topic with a lot of writters and musicians.
The opinions are totally different from an individual to another. As you maybe heard there are huge artists like U2 and Bob Dylan who enjoy the "free circulation" of their work and say that they are not disturbed by the free downloads. Of course the owners of their copyrights may have a different opinion.
Another case is that of Maria Callas who lived in France and had French citizenship and for that reason she couldnt register in all her life AN ENTIRE OPERA ! This was because the French artist syndicates (unions) didnt allow that due to copyright reasons
?!?!?! And today we dont have a video registration of an entire opera of the greatest soprano in the human hystory.
We have just a second act of a Tosca registration. And that is all !
So Geppetto, like the other message.....if you consider it "piracy" it is ok, I respect your opinion, you are free to believe anything... and I am in full process of "digitalising" my library.......and by the way, after I finish I willl donate all my paperback to a public library.
I hope I responded to all the issues...and I hope we will discuss some interesting different topics in the future.