Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
On an alternate but related point: Different principles are often invoked when we are discussing geographic restrictions on the sale of ebooks, and someone gets blocked from purchasing an ebook that is available abroad. The aggrieved party proudly proclaims that the Internet is a global network, and that national borders are either not valid or not relevant, or that local laws and copyright agreements should not necessarily apply, and that acting otherwise is backwards and outdated.
However, when it comes to the distribution of public domain books, the walls come right back up.
When an Australian wants to purchase an ebook, and cannot do so because of Australian copyrights, it doesn't matter that "Australia is Australia" and local contracts, agreements and laws apply. When another Australian wants to share a book that is legitimately PD in Australia but not elsewhere, and a demand is made to remedy the situation somehow, now it matters that "Australia is Australia" and we invoke local copyright laws.
This is not to state that anyone specifically contradicts their own positions. Rather, people seem willing to invoke whatever principles are at hand to achieve the actual underlying (and laudable) goal, which is "broad distribution of digital goods." It's essentially coincidental that this goal requires the obliteration of national borders one minute, and the fierce defense of them the next.  |
I think another difference here is that there is no reason that geographic restrictions could not be done away with. They are not a matter of law, they are contractual between authors and publishers. They
are antiquated, and over time will almost certainly change, perhaps to a language-based contract rather than a geographical one, and can be changed on an author-by-author basis. Therefore complaining about them might actually achieve something. By comparison, I doubt anyone believes that lobbying their political representative to relax copyright restrictions is going to achieve anything, and could anyone only be changed in a big-bang way.
(I do agree however with the your basic point that people are happy to have their cake and eat it
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