Using "alternative" sources to obtain books you already own?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by eric11210

However, if you own a hardcover book, but you'd like a second copy that you don't mind taking with you to the beach, (because it's one of those heavy textbooks which costs hundreds of dollars and you don't want to risk water splashing all over it), legally, you would have the right to photocopy the book and take the photocopy with you to the beach and you then have a paperback copy of your book.

That depends where you live. You may have that legal right; I, in the UK, do not. "Fair Use" is specifically defined in the UK as making a copy of one chapter from a book, or one article from a magazine.

[Blue Tyson]

Whereas we most definitely do. Australian publishing having done the ostrich impersonation with heel-dragging is going to miss out on opportunities to do the 'sell again' thing as people realise what they can do.

[GeoffC]

Please remember this is an International Forum, what may be legal for you and him, may not be so for me, her and them ....

In the end it may come down to how an individual follows the dictates of ones conscience ....

[Format C:]

Can't we just replace this recurring thread with a permament poll?

"You think downloading an ebook you own on paper is: 1) Legal and ethical; 2) legal and not ethical; 3) Illegal and unethical; 4) Illegal and ethical 5) Stop asking stupid questions and go back to work"

Every poster is required to specify the country he is reffering to about the "legal / illegal" part and the time zone for the work hours...

[GeoffC]

What and have nothing to read, moan, groan, articulate, debate until the cows come home, fall asleep reading, :snortle:

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That depends where you live. You may have that legal right; I, in the UK, do not. "Fair Use" is specifically defined in the UK as making a copy of one chapter from a book, or one article from a magazine.

You made me go look what the rules are in the Netherlands...


Q: Am I allowed to copy?
A: Yes, the law states that you can make a single copy for practice, study or personal use. The emphasis is on "personal". You can also make a copy in name of another, who will then use it himself (your mother can ask you to copy an article so she can read it as well).
It's different for music and film, there you are only allowed to make a copy for pure personal use. A copy for another, whether free or for a payment, and on request or not, is not allowed.


This one is also very interesting:

Q: Is the copyright online different from offline?
A: No, the Copyright Law is a standard ruling of the copyright and doesn't make a difference. What goes for offline, goes for online as well. That means that you are allowed - with the same rules as offline - to make a private copy of work that is found on the internet. But watch out: it is not allowed to make work public. If you for example download music with a peer-to-peer (or file-sharing) program, you are not allowed to expose your files to others. With some peer-to-peer programs, it is possible to turn off the upload-function. If you have done that, you can make private copies legally by downloading material.



So, that should answer the original question nicely in my case! It's not even illegal, if I download books if I already own them... So, no ethical problems at all


(source: http://www.auteursrecht.nl/auteursrecht/22074/)

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I feel having to pay for a book I already own is unacceptable. Neither would exchanging a p-book for a DRM encumbered e-book. That would be a downgrade since p-books do not have DRM. While the concept of downloading an e-book from the darknet to replace a p-book seems ethical on the surface, it is in, at best, a legal gray area due to conflicting and/or biased laws, which may make it ethically wrong if one values abiding by the laws (that is another debate for another place and time).

I'm taking the easy way out by cutting apart my p-books and scanning each one to a PDF that is a collection of images of each page, then discarding the pretty much destroyed p-books thus media shifting my books, which is legal here in the US. I don't have the time or energy to run each book through OCR and edit the scans so I'm having to settle for using readers that are capable of reading the resulting images of my scans. It's a compromise I can live with in exchange for increased portability of my books and dramatically reduced storage requirements (over 1200 p-books in over 30 large document storage boxes reduced in size to a small portion of a harddrive).

[Moejoe]

My advice is: screw em. Screw em fast, hard and as often as you can, because publishers have been doing the same to authors for as long as there have been publishers.

These publishers don't have ethics and morals and they don't abide by laws, they pay their way through all that. Look at what they're doing with Stieg Larsson's works, they may as well have dug up his corpse and done a jig on the rotting flesh, the ghoulish bastards.

Again I say, screw 'em. They don't play by the rules, so why the hell should you?

You know what happens every time you download a copy of a book from the file sharing sites? An angel gets its wings. Sharing is caring, after all.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

My advice is: screw em. Screw em fast, hard and as often as you can, because publishers have been doing the same to authors for as long as there have been publishers.

These publishers don't have ethics and morals and they don't abide by laws, they pay their way through all that. Look at what they're doing with Stieg Larsson's works, they may as well have dug up his corpse and done a jig on the rotting flesh, the ghoulish bastards.

Again I say, screw 'em. They don't play by the rules, so why the hell should you?

You know what happens every time you download a copy of a book from the file sharing sites? An angel gets its wings. Sharing is caring, after all.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Look at what they're doing with Stieg Larsson's works, they may as well have dug up his corpse and done a jig on the rotting flesh, the ghoulish bastards.

So, what are they doing with his work? Except publishing it, naturally...

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Two wrongs don't make a right.

But thousands upon thousands of wrongs done over countless decades to countless authors is okay, as long as it's done for profit? Screw the publishers, screw 'em hard. I can't wait for the day the whole rotten mess collapses in on itself.

[happy_terd]

You can always not bite the hand that helps you and self-publish. Then you could screw yourself.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by happy_terd

You can always not bite the hand that helps you and self-publish. Then you could screw yourself.

I wondered how long it would take for the greatest ***** in Mobileread history to show up and say something absolutely pointless and without any merit.

[happy_terd]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I wondered how long it would take for the greatest ******* in Mobileread history to show up and say something absolutely pointless and without any merit.

What I said makes a lot of sense.

You can self publish if you hate publishers so much. What dont you get and how does that not tie in, girlfriend?

The screw yourself was a play on words since you said "Screw the publishers, screw 'em hard."

I did a .

If you dont find a joke funny you dont have to attack someone.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Do you think that buying a hardback book gives you the right to a free paperback? The argument that buying a paper book gives you the right to a free eBook completely eludes me, I'm afraid!

Yes. Or I can pay the cost for the material. I can print it myself as a paper back perfectly legal (one copy for myself). I can type in an ebook version for myself. So, yes you have the right to a free eBook.