Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great
Yes, breaking DRM is currently illegal in the US under DMCA. However, that law is contrary to principles of common law property rights. It denies one the right to full use of property which one has purchased. In the long run, I hope that parts of that law will be overturned.
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Remember, though, that even with a paper book you're only purchasing the "paper", not the rights to use the contents in any way that you wish. For example, in the UK you don't have the legal right to photocopy or scan more than one chapter of that book under the "fair use" clause of the copyright laws (I understand that "fair use" is rather ill-defined in the US and that one may indeed have this right). Even in the US, however, you can't go out and re-publish the contents of the book yourself - you haven't bought any "rights" to the story that the book contains.
Just wanted to point out that restrictions on the use of something that one has purchased certainly aren't restricted to digital media.