Quote:
Originally Posted by sirbruce
What I'm getting at is that the Internet's very nature is replicating data. Anything you post on the web is going to get copied by web caches, Internet archives, local disk caches, etc. Back in the USENET days if you posted it on USENET it got distributed everywhere. So I'm suggesting that if you go so far as to put it up on the Internet you've giving up any control over redistribution rights. But, maybe I'm wrong. It's just how I *feel* in my gut at the moment.
Naturally if you attach the appropriate license you might be able to specify such exceptions, but a lot of files are simply offered without any corresponding legal notice.
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If somebody posts a book for free with no DRM, it will get passed around forever. Just because the author/publisher is naive or decides to not use any DRM doesn't mean that they should lose their redistribution rights. Giving away the book, permanently or temporarily, is usually meant as a promotional tool to get the author's name or story out there. They shouldn't be punished for doing a cool thing.
To answer the first post:
Will people continue distribution it? Yes
Should people continue distribution it? No
Are people entitled to a book if it's released for free then pulled some time later? No!
For example, Saul Williams released his third album with no label support on his website. You could either get it for free or pay $5 for a higher quality download and to support the artist directly. When the numbers came in that only 18.3% of people were paying, they decided to cut off the free download at 150,000. Later when he decided to release it as a CD on a label, he cut the $5 download option.
People aren't entitled to his work because he decided to experiment with distribution. Will pirates use that as an excuse to take it anyways? Yes.