[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Fat Abe

Those who download from the darknet, or acquire ebooks from a library, friend, or offshore realize that they are doing something morally wrong, but have figured out some way of rationalizing the behavior.

If they believe that the ex post facto law is wrong, then they may not agree that they are doing something "morally wrong," even if they know some people might think they are doing something illegal. (Only some. Legality of downloading a single copy, without redistribution, is fuzzy legally. In the US. In some countries, it's entirely legal.)

The rules of the game change, the user gets very upset, and retaliates by posting the books on the darknet. Chalk this up as another form of rationalization.

Why is it a "rationalization" to say, "I am using this book under the laws relating to its use that were in effect it was first published, not laws that were enacted later?" It may be a *legal* dodge, but is not necessarily a moral one. A person can believe that it is entirely moral to freely copy any book published in the US before 1954, as all those would be in the public domain now if they hadn't been stolen from us.

Let's skip the process of coming up with more reasons for going down the slippery slope of darknet. The real reason people commit a crime is that the probability of prosecution or punishment is extremely low.

Ah, now we're back to the fuzzy language, and the conflation of legal issues with moral ones.
1) Not all copyright infringement is "crime."
2) Not all unauthorized copying is copyright infringement.
3) Not all the darknet, torrents & upload sites are full of unauthorized copies.

And the reason people commit a crime is nothing so simple as "because they can get away with it." I could get away with slashing someone's tires in a parking lot once a week, if I cared to, but I don't. Not even the tires of obviously rich bastards who are flaunting their wealth in the poor side of Oakland. (The reason people copy ebooks is not "because those rich publishers deserve to lose money.")

People break laws for several reasons.
1) Crimes of passion--momentary impulse overrides sense, and they later realize they should not have done it. This doesn't much apply to copyright infringement.

2) Don't know or understand the law. This applies more than a lot of anti-copyists want to believe; the whole "copies are THEFT!!!" argument falls apart on careful consideration, and the people who yell such things the loudest tend to drown out the ones trying to explain the real legalities.

3) Think the law is unfair or otherwise shouldn't apply to them. This is the most common reason for filesharing; most people believe that the laws about copying are contradictory, stupid, and arranged to serve corporations rather than all of society, and because of that, feel free to ignore the laws when they can.

4) Think "I want it, and I'm not likely to get caught." This is the reason people speed ("my driving's good enough and the road's clear enough--the speed limit is for *safety*, not for some moral imperative that people shouldn't drive faster than 55mph; since I'm driving *safely* it's okay to ignore the speed limit."), but usually *not* the reason people download. While some think "it's wrong, but I'm going to do it anyway," most who say this about ebooks don't actually think it's wrong in any essential way--they think it's illegal, which is different (see cat. 3).

Ripping and rent n' rip surely costs the movie industry hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Got any statistics to back that up?

Because while there may be unauthorized copies that, if they had been purchased full-price retail on disc, total hundreds of millions of dollars, that's not the same as *costing* the movie industry those dollars. The movie industry is only out those dollars if people would have paid that price for them if they couldn't get free copies.

Some people probably would. Others saw the movie for free, liked the lead actor, and paid to see his next movie full-price in the theatre & then bought the DVD. Some of those movies aren't available as "legit" purchases--they're out of print, and not costing the movie industry anything in having them shared around.

First the publishers need to not only takedown the cabbages fellow, but prosecute him. Wouldn't it be funny if cabbages were a woman? LOL.

First, they have to *find* him. (Or her.) Perhaps s/he lives outside of the US, in which case, the DMCA doesn't apply to his/her actions.

Second, Amazon, B&N and Sony can modify their readers to look for copyrighted material with missing DRM.

What kind of copyrighted material w/o DRM? I've got several million words of copyrighted fanfiction on my Sony PRS-505.

How are they going to tell the difference between "copyrighted material with permission or fair use," and "unauthorized copyrighted material?" How can they tell the difference between an ebook from the darknet & one I scanned & converted myself?

The reader can then send back this information either through the 3G network or through the PC/Mac interface.

1) I don't use the Sony Library software at all. I don't, at the moment, have any software installed that will read DRM'd ebooks. They'd have no way of tracking my ebook habits without a total invasion of my computer. (On dialup. That means I *notice* when something's gathering data about my online activities; it eats bandwidth.)

2) Why should bookstores do the jobs of copyright owners? They're not the ones whose legal rights are being violated. If publishers want to look for unauthorized copies of their ebooks, let them get subpoenas and do the legwork themselves.

Third, the companies can brick the readers, as Microsoft has done with the Xbox 360 game console. Imagine sending back your reader, having the FBI unlock it, and then being charged with copyright violation- prima facie evidence, if ever there was such a thing. So beware, Darknet followers. Big brother is watching you. Read the Amazon terms and conditions. The path is there for the government to compel them to spy on you.

This is *delightfully* ludicrous.
Bricking the XBox was effective because customers wanted to play XBox games on it. "Bricking" my reader, if it were possible (I don't know how, since I load books onto it with Windows Explorer rather than an interface program), would get me to pop out my SD card where most of my ebooks are and reinstall firmware.

Oh, and if that didn't work? Get a Pocket Pro next time. No corporate overlords trying to decide what & how I should read.