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Old 01-22-2009, 11:39 AM   #50
Andurian
You really should try it!
Andurian doesn't litterAndurian doesn't litter
 
Posts: 57
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Device: PRS-500
Ethically, I can't see anything wrong with stripping DRM on ebooks you own. Legally, it looks as though the books say you can't but there's good reason to think the courts will decide that fair use precedents nullify what's on the books. One of the problems with having the courts having the final say on legality is that sometimes you just can't know whether what you are doing is legal or not.

Legal and ethical issues aside, in a purely practical sense you're unlikely to get in trouble for stripping DRM off books, as there's no way for the authorities to know you do it. Even DLing books is relatively safe, as companies are really only concerned with uploaders and the cost/benefit isn't worth it to set up honeypots to catch DLers.

On the ethical side, if you *do* decide that DLing is ok if you own the paper copy, realize that bittorrent involves automatically uploading as you download. Which means that even if you think it isn't morally wrong to grab an electronic version of a book you own physically *but* think that its wrong to get books that you *don't* own, you probably should avoid bittorrent because you're likely to be helping others do something you consider wrong.
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