> From: Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au>
> Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2001 20:51:52 +1000
> To: Michael Skeggs <Michael.Skeggs@uk.uu.net>
> Cc: "'link@www.anu.edu.au '" <link@www.anu.edu.au>
> Subject: Re: [LINK] E-books said to be "utterly unneeded"
>
> as soon as any e-distribution encryption format gets popular enough
> (i.e. as soon as there's enough content for it to be worth the fairly
> minor effort for someone to crack it) then it will be cracked. that's
> inevitable.
>
> publishing companies may scream and squawk, and software companies can
> make sternly reassuring announcements about the security of their scheme
> but the fact is that copy protection & digital watermarking don't work
> and can't work.
Copyright protection doesn't work anyway. Whether it's an e-book or a print
book. Which is unfortunate for us all.
Second hand bookshops are violating copyright (essentially) in that no
author receives any money from the sale or resale of a book once it's sold
the first time. Nor does the publisher make any money on the item after it's
been sold the first time. Second hand bookshops and people who lend and
borrow books to each other are essential the Napsters of the book world.
Uni students continue to photocopy books or parts of books (yes I know
they're allowed their 10% and I'm not saying they shouldn't be) but again,
the author gets nothing for it, unless the book is taken out of the library
and they might get a pittance through the ELR (good that we have it though).
Copyright is a new thing and has only been around since the 1700s but whole
careers now rely on the income stream generated through royalties that are
based on the intellectual property inherent in a work. Buying a second hand
book (which I do) or downloading an MPEG is the equivalent of snatching $2
(or whatever) out of a writer's or music maker's hands. And without them
(the originators) the rest (the printers, the technicians, the publishers,
the drivers, the storeman, the accountants etc) don't have a business.
But many people seem to be happy (or certainly happy to justify it) to argue
that 'information wants to be free but it's unlikely anyone would argue that
the person who packs the books or CDs in a box for delivery shouldn't get
paid for their effort because information wants to be free.
</stepping off my soapbox>
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