[gvtexas]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Is it not alright to have an etext version as long as you own the book and not share the book with someone while you use the etext version?

Nope. That's a violation of the copyright. Your "rights" when you buy a book is just for that book in that version. If you buy the etext version, then you have acquired the rights to use that version. To my knowledge, however, LOTR has never been released in electronic form. AFAIK, the only intellectual property you're allowed the privelege of an extra copy is software.

Here's a blurb from the 10 Myths about Copyright Explained that might help (pointed towards Internet use, but still valid for in-print use):

The "fair use" exemption to (U.S.) copyright law was created to allow things such as commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education about copyrighted works without the permission of the author. That's important so that copyright law doesn't block your freedom to express your own works -- only the ability to express other people's. Intent, and damage to the commercial value of the work are important considerations. Are you reproducing an article from the New York Times because you needed to in order to criticise the quality of the New York Times, or because you couldn't find time to write your own story, or didn't want your readers to have to register at the New York Times web site? The first is probably fair use, the others probably aren't.

Fair use is usually a short excerpt and almost always attributed. (One should not use more of the work than is necessary to make the commentary.) It should not harm the commercial value of the work -- in the sense of people no longer needing to buy it (which is another reason why reproduction of the entire work is a problem.)

More info here as well.

What complexes copyright issues greatly is the disparity of laws around the globe governing intellectual property rights. The main reason the Far East pirates get away with what they do is the lax copyright laws over there and the unwillingness of those countries to cooperate with U.S. authorities to enforce our copyright laws.

This is probably more than anyone wanted to know in this thread, but here's one more bit! I wrote an article about copyright issues as it relates to pulling stuff off the Internet and reusing on a site (such as this) last May on my blog. If you're interested, you can read that article here (if I reproduced it here without the author's permission, I'd be violating copyright laws! ).