Quote:
Originally Posted by Lazybones
Based on the posts in this thread, a large percentage of e-readers have already separated the legal from the ethical in their use of technology. DRM stripping is illegal in the US as Hellmark noted, regardless of whether you own the product you are stripping, but most people here don't seem to have a problem with it. I wonder if publishers will ever stop fighting what consumers have already decided is an ethnical use of the technology that they already have. It seems that they would be better served just letting consumers do what the want with their product, since by making common practice illegal by pushing laws like the DMCA, they are only breeding contempt for the law in the long run.
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There have been contradictory court opinions on whether this type of stripping is indeed illegal under the DMCA. It is by no means certain. We as the population can help shape the interpretation of the laws in this way. It is not NECESSARILY breeding contempt for the law, but can instead be insuring more laws are just, and so there would be less need to be contemptuous because of unjust laws. To this end, I remind all once again that just over a month from now, in October, the Library of Congress will begin accepting public input on it's administrative rule making process, in which they have the power to declare that this sort of DRM stripping for non-infringing use is indeed legal. We should all provide that input.
That being said, I disagree with one of the OPs initial positions about stripping and keeping library books longer than allowed. I view that as a form of theft, and even if it does not cause DIRECT financial loss to the author, it weakens his protections by, as you say, breeding contempt for the rules, if not the law.
ApK