Quote:
Originally Posted by JLYates
I just don't want to do something that is in the wrong, and from what I have gathered in reading lots of post, striping a DRM is just wrong; I got the impression it is a form of stealing.
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Two questions:
- You have a Sony. Assume that one day it is run over by a truck and turned to dust. At that point you buy the new Whatzit reader that is the latest rage. Would it be stealing to read your books on the Whatzit? After all, you bought them and the Sony is well-and-truly dead. Unfortunately, the Whatzit might use a different DRM scheme, in which case you *cannot* read them. Your books are now dead bits. Sony (ADE) vs Kindle vs Nook are the big examples today.
- You want to give your book to a friend, who also has a Sony. When you do so, you delete your copy, so that your friend's copy is the only remaining one. Is this stealing? Sony thinks so, and will prevent your friend from reading the book.
As you can see, the question of right or wrong is nuanced. DRM prevents me from doing some things that are unquestionably morally proper, even if not legal in the place where I happen to live. Such moral vs legal questions arise in many situations and in many places, and we make judgments and decisions about them all the time. Some trivial examples: do you ever cross the street where there isn't a crosswalk even though it illegal, or do you ever drive faster than the speed limit? It is up to each of us to decide what lines we will or won't cross, and also to respect other peoples' decisions about it.