[afa]

Originally Posted by Iphinome

I absolutely choose which laws I will follow and so do you. Have you never jaywalked? Exceeded the speed limit?

As a matter of fact, I do, as much as possible, drive within the limit. And I would certainly advise everyone else to do the same. And jaywalking is not the same thing because that doesn't infringe on anyone else's rights (unlike illegally acquiring an author's book(s)).

But that's not what I'm talking about, illegal does not mean immoral and breaking laws as a form of protest has a long history. [...]
Rosa Parks not moving to the back of the bus. Ghandi, Martin Luther King, [...]Slavery is gone now at least in law, racial segregation took a lot of law breaking, sodomy laws were only overturned in 2003 in the US. In Saudi Arabia women can't drive would you tell them to just move to country Y? .

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that perhaps your 'protest' isn't quite up there with the likes of Parks, Ghandi or MLK. Fifty years from now, people aren't exactly going to be reading in the history books about Iphinome's fight against the evil of DRMed ebooks. I dare say stripping DRM, or arguing that books/music/movies/whatever else are overpriced, isn't quite as significant to humanity as fighting racism, fascism, oppression or tyranny. But, hey, maybe that's just me.

And who decides what these so called 'just' causes are? You? Me? The guy next door? Everyone has their own rules which irk them. If we were all to go out and start breaking rules of our selfish choosing then that would, as I said before, just lead to chaos. Fighting oppression is one thing. Anarchy is another, entirely.

What I'm trying to say is laws like the DMCA may not rise to that level with you,

Not even in the same stratosphere, no.

you might even approve of them

As a matter of fact, I do not. I absolutely agree that DRM does nothing beyond irritating legitimate (i.e. paying) customers. But your arguments aren't merely about stripping DRM and/or allowing consumers to read their books how and where they want; your argument is advocating the consumption of pirated books, thereby denying the authors of those works from realising their right to earn a living from their creations.

I absolutely agree that DRM (at least in its current form) should be eradicated. I would, however, support publishers if they were ever able to come up with a method to respect the consumers' rights while reducing piracy. (And no, I have no idea how. I'll leave that to people smarter than myself.) But I absolutely disagree with the methods that you seem to support.

but other people might feel different and if it matters that much to them then yes, break the law, strip drm, download if you don't know how, stick it to the man, if life+70 copyrights offend you download stuff that goes PD in life+50 countries or whatever.

First of all, this notion that you're 'sticking it to the man'. My response to these 'other people' is: Seriously, stop kidding yourself. You're not some modern day Robin Hood. Don't try to convince me you're just doing this for some greater good. You're doing it for yourselves. Your motivation is self gain, and you're going to have an awfully hard time convincing me otherwise. Besides, what you consider sticking it to the man, in fact does more damage to the artists/authors who created the work. The fact that a particular author loses potential sales hurts him, not the industry. They'll just move on to the next one, and the next one, and...

Secondly, I really don't understand your objection to the copyright thing. (I thought it was life+25?). If you were an entrepeneur who started a private business, wouldn't you feel that your kids should be able to enjoy the fruits of your labour after you were dead? Or do you think it's okay for someone to come along the day after and say, "Sorry, this is now public property." Personally, I don't have a strong opinion on the Life+X issue either way. I'm just trying to understand why you find it so offensive..?

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Up to a certain point. I will not take the right to download content I should pay for. But, while the US law makes it illegal to read DVD on linux, or get my books rid of drm, that would be a right I would take, where I living there.
Though I will not take the right to distribute the books after striping off the DRM.

And I agree with that. You want to strip DRM for personal use, because you have multiple devices or whatever? Go ahead. You want to be able to lend it to a family member or a couple of your friends? That's fine by me.

But uploading it on the darknet so millions of people can get it for free, and deny the author his right to earn a living? Sorry, but that's not something I will ever, ever agree with.