Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
I think the sooner we understand and accept the fact that electronic files really are definable entities with malleable but distinct characteristics, the sooner we can work out a way to deal with them legally, morally and ethically.
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In the example that nekokami's mentioned, she's talking about software, rather than a book. In that case, she's purchased a license to use the software when she purchased the original copy she referred to. I haven't checked the licensing language for this particular case because my copy of "The Lost Treasures Of Infocom" is still in a moving box somewhere, but typically the license allows for reasonable backup making. Arguably she's just using a backup file of the software she purchased a license for, it's just not a
direct backup copy. It is, however,
identical to what she'd have gotten if she
had made that direct copy.
For paper books like you've mentioned, Steve, there's a physical component to them that doesn't parse well to e-books. The reason you'd return that ugly hardback and buy a paperback is that you
can do so. You're returning one physical container for another, and each container is tied to a single copy and vice-versa.
For e-books there
is no physical container. That's one of the things we have to keep in mind during that working out how to deal with them you mentioned.
One huge glaring problem we have right now is that publishers really want to sell licenses to books, so that they keep control over how we use them, but they don't want to allow the same sets of reasonable options that come with software licenses and that make them bearable to the customer.
If they took the licensing thing to its logical conclusion, they
would see that regardless of the format I've bought a book in, I can only read one copy of it at a time, and if I've bought (and still have) that one copy, they've been paid for my licensed use of it. If I want to lend or give that copy to someone, I should be permitted to do so under a reasonable license, just as I can let a friend come over and use Excel on my computer or give/sell them my original copy of a game as long as I don't retain access to it.
I guess my main point is that part of the reason that we're having trouble figuring out how to deal with the uniqueness of e-books is that the
Publishers (et. al.) don't
want to think about what e-books really are and mean to their industry in any reasonable fashion, so they're trying to do things that are mutually incompatible. And they have a lot of power with those who make law in the various nations of the world, and of course, lawmakers are not known for their great ability to recognize mutually incompatible actions, now are they?
