Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Theft

[Dainin]

While I have nothing against one person sending an electronic copy of a book, video, etc. to another individual, I think that posting links to pirated copies of these sorts of materials on a public forum is screwing the author out of potential sales, and is wrong. The authors/creators put in the time and effort to make their products available for sale, and should be compensated for this, and not lose out because someone else decides that their work should be freely available to the world. It should be up to the author, and not some random person on the web.

 

In my opinion, the moderators should remove any links re-distributing copyrighted material from the forum. This sort of thing should be a one-to-one transaction conducted by private message, and not a free-for-all unless authorized by the author.

 

The Tao Bums should maintain ethical standards and not condone stealing.

 

Note: I am not an author or a capitalist. I am a librarian!

Edited August 12, 2010 by Dainin

[Brian]

...

[Trunk]

In my opinion, the moderators should remove any links re-distributing copyrighted material from the forum.

 

Agreed. And I'm a moderator.

I'm (right now) going through at least a section of the Books! thread to remove links.

 

The problem is that there are way too many posts for the small group of moderators to keep track of. The community needs to help: If you see any links to copyrighted material, hit the "report" button at the bottom of the post to let us know so we can take care of it promptly.

 

- Trunk

[Mal]

Agreed. And I'm a moderator.

I'm (right now) going through at least a section of the Books! thread to remove links.

 

I also asked "TheTaoBum" on the 26/7 to stop posting those links on this site.

[voidisyinyang]

Well this issue is currently up for debate in the courts -- based on the interpretation of the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the Data Protection Act.... with the specific focus on scribd. Currently the Safor Harbor law states that it's up to the author to inform a website that someone illegally uploaded copyrighted material to their website. Then that website has to immediately take it down.

 

http://www.chillingeffects.org/weather.cgi?WeatherID=614

 

Still, obviously if the moderators of taobums want to be proactive on this issue, as per their personal inclinations, then that's perfectly fine within the realm of freedom of choice. I'm just pointing out that scribd, technically, is not illegal.

 

There is a case against scribd currently pending in the courts.

 

Here's the results of the case against Rapidshare -- which would be the precedent for scribd:

 

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100521/1228049530.shtml

 

I'm sure scribd has a "DMCA agent" which rapidshare did not have as they're in Germany, not the U.S.

Edited August 13, 2010 by drewhempel

[Mal]

Thanks for the info Drew. I wasn't really sure and I find a lot of the legal stuff pretty confusing. We wanted to err on the side of caution.

 

Since it's off topic personally I prefer file sharing via torrents

[voidisyinyang]

Thanks for the info Drew. I wasn't really sure and I find a lot of the legal stuff pretty confusing. We wanted to err on the side of caution.

 

Since it's off topic personally I prefer file sharing via torrents

 

Mal umm glad you mentioned it because you might want to look into that more. I stated previously I never register for anything -- nor save files -- I don't even have my own computer. Still there is new software that can track the IP addresses of people using bit-torrent, etc. and then those people can be held legally responsible -- they can be sued, etc. I'm not sure all the details but you might want to look into it.

[Brian]

...

[Pero]

While I have nothing against one person sending an electronic copy of a book, video, etc. to another individual, I think that posting links to pirated copies of these sorts of materials on a public forum is screwing the author out of potential sales, and is wrong.

 

What's the difference between the two?

 

The authors/creators put in the time and effort to make their products available for sale, and should be compensated for this, and not lose out because someone else decides that their work should be freely available to the world. It should be up to the author, and not some random person on the web.

 

IMO/experience, having the chance to download a book in this way may actually lead to the person buying the book. Just recently I found a book online that I was thinking of getting for two years but didn't because I wasn't sure if it would be useful to me. But now that I was able to see it in full on my PC I saw that it would be useful and am planning to buy it when I can afford it.

 

Also in the same way I've been able to avoid making disappointing purchases. Some books seem interesting/useful on the outside but when looked a little closer are just a waste of money for me.