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Originally Posted by Soldim
And, not juridically correct. Regardless whether or not a work still falls under copyright, in many West-European countries downloading is permitted under fair use.
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If this is the case, then what good is a disclaimer? Should the site include "wink wink, nudge nudge" at the end, perhaps?
I'm not familiar with EU law, e.g. whether it is only the distributor who is legally responsible, or both parties.
I don't think it's an issue of fair use, though; it's an issue of who is legally responsible for the distribution. It is entirely plausible that in some regions, both the sharer and recipient would be considered as engaged in the act of duplication, but it is more useful and/or more politically palatable to take action against the sharer. (E.g. arresting the prostitute, but not the john, does not mean solicitation itself is legal.)
The disclaimer approach, by the way, exclusively places responsibility on the downloader -- and explicitly acknowledges that the content in question may not be in the public domain in the country where the downloader resides. It doesn't make sense for the distributor to say "we're not responsible, the downloader assume full responsibility" and for the downloader to say "I'm not responsible, this falls under fair use."
FYI there is a case currently under review in the UK which includes these issues:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/m...wars-copyright
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Originally Posted by Soldim
Hmm, requiring these sites to block content that I would actually be legally allowed to download? Does not sound balanced to me, rather focused on pleasing the copyright holders.
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Again: The disclaimer approach explicitly acknowledges that if the book is not PD in your country, you are
not legally allowed to download it -- even if no one is actively going after you for this action.
The ideal situation would allow the PD distributor the maximum ability to distribute works within the confines of their responsibilities. Pulling PD content completely out of circulation is, in my opinion, not an acceptable option. However, targeted blocking is viable. E.g. "Joe's Free Ebook Hut" based in the US receives a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer in the UK; Joe verifies that the copyright claim is valid; and in response puts up a geo-IP block to screen out UK downloaders. So if Book X is PD in France, a French citizen can still legally download it.
Again, from a purely practical perspective, it's unlikely that Joe will receive anything more substantial than a nasty letter; it's too expensive to sue and the laws and precedents are, to put it mildly, diverse. That does not grant Joe the right to thumb his nose at copyright law.