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Originally Posted by sirmaru
The big cases which involved civil suits, NOT criminal prosecutions, involved file sharing sites mainly for music back in the early 2000's.
Operators of those sites and many uploaders and downloaders did receive subpoenas for large sums of damages. Their names and addresses were traced by their IP address and internet providers who furnished the information.
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I wasn't distinguishing between civil and criminal prosecutions, but between DRM removal and unauthorised distribution. None of those cases you mention were about DRM removal, only about unauthorised distribution of copyright material.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sirmaru
However, it should be noted that many sites discussing eBooks make sure not to show links to Apprentice Alf or allow discussion of DRM removal techniques. Obviously, there is some fear of civil consequences.
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The law is unclear. Most sites (including MobileRead) don't wish to become a test case if some publisher decides to test whether publishing a link to DRM removal software is the same as distributing DRM software. Although given the laste EUCJ ruling, it's now even more uncertain whether non-commercial distribution of DRM removal software for ebooks is even a civil offence.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sirmaru
If a person has built a collection of 40,000 eBooks by downloading from a bit Torrent site, using Calibre to organize them and the Alf plugin to make them all readable on any eReader,
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Books downloaded from pirate sites DO NOT have DRM. If they did, Alf's DRM-removal tools still wouldn't help the would-be pirate, since that can only remove DRM for the original purchaser (the encryption key must be known, and it's only easily available to the original purchaser).
You are confusing two issues.
(1) removing DRM for personal use
(2) unauthorised distribution of copyright material