From: Phil Hagelberg Date: 2006-05-17T05:40:10+09:00 Subject: Re: Ticked Off "Keith Lancaster" writes: > If I print a PDF out and put it on a news stand for sale, and you come by > and take it without paying for it, is this copyright violation or > theft? This is theft. > If it is theft, are you saying that all you are stealing is paper, > and the content does not play a role? Yes. You have committed a crime against the news stand owner, not the author of the work. > How is the printed version logically different From the electronic > in this case? "The peculiar character of an idea is that no one possesses the less because everyone possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me receives without lessening me, as he who lights his candle at mine receives light without darkening me." -- Thomas Jefferson (Note that what he's saying doesn't make it legal or justified, just different from theft.) > In the end, I do not care one whit whether the activity discussed (ie, > taking a pdf without paying the author), is *technically* stealing or > copyright violation - I find it wrong, as at least I *think* do you. As > others have written, most of the applicable laws were written before > electronic copying was possible. In the end, you're allowed to be imprecise on mailing list postings. I'd just like to state that there is an error being made, and the great frequency at which people make this error bothers me. I agree with you on the morality of the issue, but I think it is better to discuss the issue using accurate terms so that when the morality *is* disputed, (as per the fair use example I mentioned in a previous post) we will have some common understanding from which to work. Call me a pedant, but I've seen too many discussions hopelessly degenerate into people talking past each other for no reason other than the terms were not clearly defined at the outset. > Perhaps it is time that the laws catch up with the technology. I vehemently agree, though I hold little hope for this. -Phil Hagelberg