Quote:
Originally Posted by kovidgoyal
Let me put the question to you another way. Say tomorrow someone comes to you with an idea for making a quick buck. He says, "Let's download all the books from PG and run them through calibre, then sell them for $x."
Would you encourage this person, or not?
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Of course bloody not. I already said that that running PG text through calibre and selling it at the price comparable to best-sellers is "highway robbery".
But what about a convenience fee of $0.25? Or one-time charge of $5 to cover costs of running server that eliminates:
a) need to access your computer when you are on vacation and just want to read a classic from PG in format for your 3G capable device?
b) time to plug device into USB port, to find, download, click, transfer the converted file to device?
Is that morally acceptable? I personally don't find any issues with it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kovidgoyal
Herding cats. First there were the people that objected because fraud is a "legal term". Now there are people that object because, even if it is vraud, it's impossible/inefficient/inelegant to enforce a law against this type of vraud.
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I am not objecting, Kovid. I am merely pointing out to you that we are dealing with clear moral issue, and that discussion about morals can quickly become heated.
Since intentions of the perpetrator are tricky to judge, and if I am correct, what you would like to achieve is a differentiation of "vraud" vs. "acceptable use of PD" based on:
1) The amount of human work, "the sweat of the brow", that was included in preparation of the "modified" work. One-click run of automated converter does not qualify as a "modification", HarryT's hand-crafting does.
2) The amount of money asked for the service. A "small convenience fee" (TM) is acceptable, a "full price of the new ebook" (also TM) isn't.
The problems for respectable requirements are:
1) This is a FAST moving target. You have improved calibre in very short time to do things that once required hand-crafting, and you will add stuff in the future. How do one judge what is "vraud" and what is useless work of the individual who was simply unaware of the latest vintage of calibre capabilities?
2) Who and how defines the acceptable price for the service?