Quote:
Originally Posted by Harmon
The purpose of DRM is not to deal with pirates. Pirates break DRM for breakfast. They laugh at DRM.
The purpose of DRM is to erase the fair use rights of the non-pirating public under the copyright law. Rights that are clearly ours under the copyright law are foreclosed through the back door of DRM, because DRM keeps us from exercising them.
For instance, you have a clear right under copyright law to move media from one environment (television) to tape (VCR.) But DRM can prevent it. You have a clear right to take a Kindle book and move it to your Sony to read it. But DRM prevents you from doing so. If you are a teacher, you have a clear right to take a chapter from a DRM protected ebook, and distribute it to your students to read on their computers. But DRM prevents you from doing it.
Piracy may, indeed, be stealing. I tend to agree with you on that, but I have some reservations when I consider Cory Doctorow's observation that artists operate in their technological environment, and the technological environment of the 21st century has, at its core, free and open copying. That's how the internet works.
It is entirely possible that the concept of "piracy" is obsolete under our emerging technological conditions. In a world where water is hard to find, it could be a crime to fill your canteen. In a world where it rains all the time, the concept of a canteen makes little sense.
But don't kid yourself. We would have DRM even if every person in the world refused to pirate.
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That seems to be a very cynical view, and I hate to think it's the
only reason publishers put DRM into their products. It casts the publishers as pure villains with ulterior motives beyond simply the protection of their products. I don't care for this view at all, but I must admit the possibility exists that it may have the virtue of being correct.
However, even if this is true, I would still discourage piracy, not only because I believe it is a violation of ethics, but because the existence of piracy gives cover to publishers to continue to use DRM schemes.
As I've previously stated, I see nothing unethical about removing DRM for personal use from books that have been legally purchased.
Kudos to you for your well-thought out reply, however!