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"If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing"

pluralistic.net

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Re: "If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing"

#41

Post by pavel_lishin »

saulpw wrote: post #7
josho wrote: post #5

Words matter. So let’s be clear on both sides. It isn’t piracy. It isn’t stealing. It’s copyright infringement.

Copyright infringement is about publishing, not consuming. If I copy a friend's legally-purchased .epub that's like borrowing their legally-purchased printed book. Same as if I take a book from a Little Library in my neighborhood, or borrow a paper book from the city library. Why is the transfer of digital content more restricted? A print publisher can't prevent a library from lending their book as many times as they…

> If I copy a friend's legally-purchased .epub that's like borrowing their legally-purchased printed book.

It's more like running their legally-purchased printed book through a photocopier, and then reading the copied pages.

Re: "If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing"

#42

Post by 6510 »

xscott wrote: post #6
KeplerBoy wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you actually need to playback the HD version in a browser? A recent-ish version of Chrome on Windows and an HDCP connection? It's annoying sure, but not an outlandish requirement.

You don't need any of it. But if you buy it, you should expect to receive it, and if you don't receive it, you should get your money back.

How about: If you buy it you should just download it? It's the only way to complete the transaction.

Re: "If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing"

#43

Post by 6510 »

I_Am_Nous wrote: post #13

I just don't care enough about video media to watch anything in the first place, so I've never really needed to pirate movies or shows after 2009/2010. I don't pirate anything anymore but I do still have me booty from previous high seas adventures. It's been mixed in with my data for so long I'm not sure I could separate it if I tried lol

It's so important we should design our entire civilization around this.

We cant just take your word for it, we need DRM brain chips to make sure.

Re: "If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing"

#45

Post by eesmith »

saulpw wrote: post #40
eesmith wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoting Wikipedia: "Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the protected work, or to make derivative works." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_inf…

So if a friend has their one copy of a legally-purchased epub on a USB drive, they can give that USB drive to me legally, right? and I can read the book and pass the drive onto someone else?

Maybe.

Please describe what "legally-purchased" means.

If it came from a Kindle, the license agreement your friend agreed to as a condition of using the Kindle Store says "Unless specifically indicated otherwise, you may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense, or otherwise assign any rights to the Kindle Content or any portion of it to any third party, and you may not remove or modify any proprietary notices or labels on the Kindle Content." https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html%3FnodeI...

Is the content protected by DRM? In which case you can be subject to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which "criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself." (Quoting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_A... ).

If your friend bought the epub on a USB stick from a store, and there is no DRM, and no so-called "shrink-license" which forbids transfer (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine#Ownership_... for how that plays out with software) then you are fine, in my decidedly non-lawyer opinion.

Note how that last Wikipedia link comments "if someone buys MP3 songs from Amazon.com, the MP3 files are merely licensed to them and hence they may not be able to resell those MP3 files. However, MP3 songs bought through iTunes Store may be characterized as "sales" because of Apple's language in its EULA and hence they may be resellable, if other requirements of first sale doctrine are met."

Which is why you need to know what your friend means by "legally-purchased."

Re: "If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing"

#47

Post by davidguetta »

KyleBerezin wrote: post #44
ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #12

Piracy is a moral duty as I said earlier before some brave souls flagged that comment.

It's a reductionist attitude.

Reducing what exactly ? The movie industry has done nothing but booming for decades with arguably a decreasing level of quality if anything.

People who go out of their way to fight against piracy do so for nothing else than of feeling good about themselves about some weird moral stance that 100% unconsequential about anything real.

There nothing but better hills to die on if you are serious about picking a fight

Re: "If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing"

#48

Post by eps »

buserror wrote: post #31
eps wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please, quit whinning. Microsoft's been working on it for ages and they are almost there. That's exactly the point of PMP in Windows (Protected media path) and (almost) mandatory TPM in Windows 11. Not long now... and then you'll rent. May be even pay for the accrued mouse mileage, who knows.

What sort of reply is this? Does it address the fact they sell a product and you aren't getting what you paid for?

It's a bitter joke.
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