Quote:
Originally Posted by NatCh
Sorry, cmbs, but speaking for myself, the same moral code that prevents me from taking copyrighted works without paying for them, also (among other things) prevents me from trying to force everyone else to comply with that code in every wise.
MobileRead is primarily a discussion based community, that means we discuss things, and sometimes they're things that many, or even most of us don't like much, but we hold the right of free speech in pretty high regard. We would also consider forbidding the mere mention of such things (as you seem to want us to do) to be pretty firmly contrary to that freedom.
You are similarly at liberty to believe or not, as you choose, our statements that MobileRead does not condone "piracy."
We draw a line at actively distributing and openly condoning tools that only support "piracy." Could that line be drawn elsewhere? Certainly it could: it's a judgment call. We draw it, in good faith, in the best place we can, trying to balance the various abstract ideals that bear on the matter. That's something else you'll just have to decide for yourself whether you'll choose to believe or not.  |
It's not a question of forcing people to stop downloading illegal books, it's a question of saying "we don't discuss that here" or "you can do it but we're not going to help you in any way, we strongly disapprove of that activity". You can't control the behavior of people, but you can control what you allow in your own place.
People do a lot of things you're not letting them discuss here, things that whether I think they're right or wrong, whether they're illegal or not, they have the freedom to do. Mobile read is making a choice of what they're allowing. That's pretty much what you're saying, I just think if mobile read were more serious about not helping people in their piracy activities, you'd draw the line somewhere else. This whole "freedom of discussion" is a convenient cover. You going to allow them to discuss assassinating the president? Blowing up Dallas? I doubt it.
The fact is that this community does give pretty clear instructions on how to remove drm in several places, and this thread is an advertisement for a site which illegally provides ebooks.