Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
It appears that these provisions, including giving copies to close friends, are not uncommon in the civil law countries of the EEC. Presumably these provisions also do not extend to whole books?
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It seems that they do. The text of the law is a bit ambiguous:
https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokument.w...er=NOR40074744
(8) excludes "whole books", but this probably refers only to (6), not to (1) to (4) -- sorry, I'm too lazy and/or incompetent to translate it all.
The comment on
http://www.illsinger.at/wordpress/?p=442 explicitly talks about the right to make private copies "im Zusammenhang mit elektronischen Medien (Musik, Filme, e-Books)" -- "in the context of electronic media (music, movies, ebooks)". And what sense would it make to allow me to share with a family member or friend half a book?
Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
I wonder if recognising reality and allowing similar rights in, say, the US, would result in massive losses to the industries concerned.
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I don't think so (I could write a long explanation why I don't think so, but these things have been argued before).
BTW, given how much the publishers and vendors save on costs for printing, storing, handling and shipping, an ebook should cost, at the most, half of what a printed book costs. Since most ebooks are sold for more or less the same price as paperbacks, I'm already paying for two when I buy one.
And, another BTW, I wonder, when Amazon started to allow sharing Kindle books with family and friends, did they double the authors' royalties per licence sold?