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Originally Posted by pruss
I understand that US law allows the copying of music from a CD one owns. But it does not allow one to download an mp3 from a third-party site. At least I think this is what the courts have said.
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That is the way I understand it. But if you own the CD and rip the CDs @ 256, or if you download the equivalent cds@256, whats the real difference? Bit for bit, its the same thing.
Moving on to ebooks. If you have a paperback copy of the book, and scan it to make your own ebook, or download it to make your ebook, once again it is the same digital material. The only difference is, that it is much more a pain to make your own ebook. Besides I imagine most any any author wouldnt begrudge you downloading an ebook of their work, if you properly contributed to the author on the hardcover and/or paperback. It sure beats you not reading them at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pruss
There seem to me to be many ways of arranging a set of copyright laws that balance encouragement to content creators and availability to others. One particular set of laws has been chosen in the U.S. by duly elected representatives. The set of laws chosen is far from perfect, but nonetheless it is not clearly unreasonable on the whole. It seems reasonable, for instance, for a publisher to be able to charge you more for getting more and less for getting less, thus charging you $25 for a hardcover, $35 for a hardcover plus one electronic copy, $45 for a hardcover plus an electronic copy you can convert to arbitrary formats for personal use
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If you feel thats reasonable, fine. Personally I think that is insane. So you truly think $20 over hardcover is reasonable to pay for an unDRMed ebook?
Quote:
Originally Posted by pruss
Once laws are chosen, if the laws are not immoral or clearly unreasonable, we the subjects of these laws need to obey (or leave their jurisdiction).
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Not necessarily. Ever heard of civil disobedience? Besides the subject of this thread is about ethics, now which is lawful..big difference