Quote:
Originally Posted by bill the smith
Declaration of Independence
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that books are knowledge and that knowledge is forever free".
I am totally opposed to:
1. DMR on books.
2. Geographic limits on sales of ereaders.
3. Geographic limits on purchase of ebooks.
4. Americo-centrism as the defining basis of the availability of literature.
5. Making criminals of those who download/possess/read ebooks which are not in the Public Domain.
6. Unreal copyright laws.
This means that I support:
7. Software that cracks/strips DRM.
8. Free distribution of any book which is electronic format.
9. Access for all ereaders and ebooks without geographical limitation.
10. "Warez" or "pirate sites” that make ebooks available to all – books for every person in every country for free.
Is anyone else on board?
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Going to be a lot less books written if there are no copyright laws to protect an author's rights to the books they've written. That said, I think current copyright laws are designed to protect publishers, not authors. You think that in a future where paper publishing is headed for extinction, albeit a long time from now - Authors will write books for the pure pleasure of their audience? That's a joke. Have the fruit of their efforts spread freely across the world with no recompense for the author in his lifetime? And you think people will write books in order to do that? Fiction?
And when there are no longer "new" interesting books to read - take your thoughts out to a conclusion. Do the cause and effect and see how your proposals work out in the long term.
I see a world where people write books only to make their political point or push forth their cause - not to be "interesting or thought provoking" and coincidently - saleable... there will be less reading for pleasure which to me means - a dumber world with fewer readers.
I don't know exactly what copyright laws should be but I'm guessing something like author death + 5 years. And authors should be more easily able to bail out of a bad publishing contract.
And on this ebook/reader publishing topic anyway, I have a truth for you about the "Americans are the cause of all evil in the world" point of view. It's the other countries requiring the geographic limits on these things. Think.. What reason does some American company have for limiting their sales of readers or books? They want to make less money? Try to think beyond the "they've got something and I can't have it" mentality and go on to the why. You hear these xxx publishing limits sales to yyy scenarios, but it's because they're required to - and "xxx publishing" is stuck in your head as the cause.. and it's only the cause of your distress, it's not the cause of the requirement/limit...
If authors labor six months or a year or a lifetime writing something - why should you have a "right" to it? The idea annoys me in a visceral way. Your beliefs are not based on the good of humanity or the ideal of spreading knowledge, they're just based on "what you want" for yourself.
That said, again.. DRM or DMR whatever is an evil I despise, but suggest something else workable.
Baby steps.. Reduce copyright longevity, make laws protecting authors more and publishers less - but not get rid of them all or there will be no publishing which means what? Take it out to it's logical conclusion.. test and evaluate.. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I don't know what the answers are but I know they're not the anarchy you suggest, not at least as a benefit to humanity..
Quote:
Rather than trying to justify misappropriation of all the books any author has ever written, why not support the authors (and even those publishers) that make use of such consumer-friendly models?
The Bandit
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Agree wholeheartedly with that.