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Originally Posted by slayda
I've always been concerned about the unidirection that society places on "piracy". What about publishers that; 1) use DRM such that you are restricted to a single device, 2) require a special device to read their books, 3) charge prices as high as pbooks even though the cost of ebooks is much lower - i.e. no paper, ink, labor or facilities to produce & distribute, no middle man, etc.
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There's the other unidirectional aspect, too - the entire purpose of copyright, the reason it exists, is to expand the public domain. By restricting works from entering the public domain, either by bad laws or DRM, the publishers are breaking their side of the bargain - they benefit, and society suffers.
I think that's the worst part. And I read an interesting comment the other day, along the lines that most people don't ever expect things to become public domain, since nothing has in their lifetime. Most people would probably think that "Who owns the copyright on Shakespeare's plays?" is a perfectly valid question.