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Originally Posted by radleyp
Here's one involving this site. I first learned here that Laurence Lessig's "Free Culture", as you know an attack on what Congress is doing with the copyright law, is available free in a variety of formats
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If someone release something into the public domain (and so states it...I haven't seen Lessig's notice as such), then it is treated the same as any intellectual work whose copyright has expired. Anyone can then pick it up in its entirety, publish it, charge for it, or give it away free...and owes nothing to the original copyright holder(s). Many classic books fall into this category, hence you see them reprinted in a myriad of forms, some even free in electronic form.
Now if you could prove that the Memoware file is a copy the PalmDigital file, there's probably some issue there. But if the Memoware file is simple a PalmReader version created from another source, then I don't know but wouldn't think that was a violation. I'm not an attorney, just have done some deeper readings for various research projects.
There are a lot of gray areas in copyright issues, and it's even more of a nightmare with so called "fair use" which is abused far more than full text pirating. It's less likely to get in trouble for misuing the fair use allowances. Copyright laws, as you know, were written before electronic use and options, and badly need to be overhauled. And, of course, this discussion only revolves around U.S. copyright laws...try to fathom how all this works in an international setting and you'll go bonkers trying to figure it out!