Quote:
Originally Posted by RWood
The jails have a lot of people in them that ignored laws they thought were wrong.
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Indeed.
Ignoratia juris neminem excusat (The ignorance doesn't excuse anyone) is a basic principle in a state governed by the rule of law.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rlauzon
The problem is that due to the changing of copyright law, and this lawyer-created concept of "intellectual property" (how can someone own an idea or a thought?)
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Oh but you _do_ own ideas or thoughts! In an argument you probably often say "THAT'S NOT WHAT I SAYD!!" Or, if you write a post at this forum but someone else claims the authorship of it you will certainly say "IT WAS ME WHO WROTE THAT!", or, quite frequently "I'd already said that before."
Quote:
Originally Posted by rlauzon
If I have a paper copy of Harry Potter 7 on my desk that I legally purchased, how can downloading the eBook version be "stealing"? The author has received payment.
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It is stealing. If you are at a physical bookshop and you pay one copy of the book but you hide the other one in your jacket aren't you stealing? If you left the book alone, someone else could buy it and that other person would be paying the author's rights. But since you have stolen it, that copy will not serve to pay the author. Same happens if you download a book: you have paid the book in your desk but you haven't paid the author for having that extra copy you downloaded (which by the way is an illegal copy since the author did not give any permission for having it uploaded in the first place).
The point here isn't if you have purchased anything or not. The point here is that you don't have the author's permission and they have the right to do whatever they want with it (for instance, they have the right not to allow it being uploaded to the Internet because they fear that can drop their sellings or, simply, because they only want to see the words they have written printed in yellow recycled paper.)
I have to say, however, that I believe authors will very soon have to change all their copyright models and find ways of giving their books for free while still being paid by someone else but the final consumer. That will be one of the great revolutions of the next decade.