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Originally Posted by HarryT
Yes, I know that you think that giving copies of books to your neighbours is "being generous", but the law regards it as piracy, regardless of your views.
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To repeat what I've said before:
A commentary to the Austrian Urheberrecht law, referring to printed books, says (in my clumsy translation):
Everyone -- including legal entities -- is allowed to make individual copies for their own private or professional use, though not for the purpose of making the work available to the public. Copies may be shared within the "private sphere." (my emphasis) The law says "individual" copies, but does not define a maximum number. The often voiced assumption that this maximum number is 7 does not agree with actual judicature, according to which this number has to be decided in each case, taking into consideration the intended use of those copies. It is not a fact that "individual" copies necessarily always means a small number.
(This text is from 1996, so details may have changed, but the basic principle still holds.)
A copy of one of my posts in a different thread, refering to digital files:
Germany:
http://anwalt-im-netz.de/urheberrech...eberrecht.html
Austria:
http://www.illsinger.at/wordpress/?p=442
In both countries, an individual person is entitled to make a limited number of copies ("Musik, Filme, e-Books" -- music, movies, ebooks) for private use, as long as they are not sold, not made available to the public, and as long as the original had been lawfully obtained.
Some differences between German and Austrian laws exist, for instance, in Germany it is illegal to circumvent copy protection, while in Austria it is not, but to a large degree they are similar.
From the first source:
"Die Kopien dürfen nur für den eigenen privaten Gebrauch gemacht werden, zum Beispiel für den CD-Player im Fahrzeug oder als Zuwendung für Personen, zu denen man eine engere persönliche Beziehung hat, wie Verwandte oder Freunde. Mit diesen Kopien darf kein Erwerbszweck verbunden sein."
My attempt at translation: "Copies may only be made for private use, for instance to be used with the CD player in the car, or to be given to persons with whom a close personal relationship exists, as with relatives or friends. No monetary gain may be sought from these copies."
Copyright laws differ between European countries, but Austrian law is not unique, and German law, for instance, is rather similar (in Germany it is illegal to cirvumvent DRM, though, while in Austria it isn't).
End of quoting myself. You have been active in both threads, and have read and replied to my posts, so why do you say now "the law regards it as piracy, regardless of your view"? (Admittedly I do not know much about US law, which is of little relevance to me.)
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Many retailers (eg Amazon) provide legal ways of sharing content with friends and family, however, and clearly that's not piracy.
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How is this really different? The "do not share with a friend" argument is that by doing this you "steal" from the author and from the publisher, who are deprived of the chance to sell another copy. They are equally deprived of this chance when I share the book with an owner of a Kindle, with Amazon's blessings, so this is stealing, too -- or isn't it?
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How could it be abused in this specific case? Can you give an example?
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It has been said here that e-readers do not "phone home" to report watermarks, but they
could. When I exercise my legal right to share a book with a friend, Amazon or Google or the NSA or whoever might then be informed of the fact. It's just another invasion of our privacy in the name of defending the law, but I suppose this will ultimately lead to an "is Edward Snowdon a traitor or a hero" discussion, which probably would need to be moved to the Politics and Religion section.