Tuesday, December 11, 2018

An Intriguing Question


What would happen if a person who has a license to a book were to remove that e-books digital Rights Management and then create a document that had that book, or a major portion of it, without digital Rights Management.  Seems to me that this is allowed.  In my mind, I purchased the concepts and the stories, not the medium.  If I want to use those concepts and stories in my thoughts and for personal use, I think that is exactly what I paid money to accomplish, so I am thinking that the DRM is not required for the books I buy as long as I don't give the information away or sell it. 

The next question would be, what would happen if after that was done you were to send that particular unprotected document to a person who owns a copy of the original book ?  Since you both have purchased the books, and you are both owners of the ability to read the text.  So there you go.  What are you buying when you buy an e-book?.  What constitutes "fair use"?

Mostly, I think that the whole idea of copyright and patents need to be ruthlessly addressed.  Simply put, these are put into place to protect the revenue stream of publishers.  With the exception of a couple of folk, the writers are contract workers with little rights and less income.  Oh, I think that a reasonably skilled and active writer can probably make a middle-class living, but the big money is up in the distribution system.

I think that the current system is approaching its pull date.  But it will take a while to let the system let go of its hammerlock.   I think that the scientific publishing industry will be the first to let go, but that is a guess of stupid proportions.  I still think that it will roll that way.


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