keriflur wrote:
Strayer wrote:
Removing DRM and putting a book on another device is illegal. It is stealing.Yes, it's illegal. No, it's not stealing. You can't steal something you legally purchased and paid for.
Now if you go and post it for others to download without paying the rights owner, then you are stealing and helping others to steal. (And IMO, you should be locked in a dungeon with no light and no books for the rest of your life.)
Breaking DRM, in most cases, is illegal but not a crime. Breaking it, then redistributing it in some way would be copyright infringement, but not theft (without some very creative and aggressive prosecution).
Personally, I think IP piracy is often morally equivalent of theft, but in terms of the law it's not considered under the same category.
I only add the qualifier "often" because I have some bootleg/grey market products that can only be obtained that way. Things I would have paid for if someone was willing to take my money legally. I know this is probably a bad thing. Rights holders, in principle, should have the right to decide how, when, or if something is made available. In practice, I think once it is out there, it should be out there.
How else am I to get the Star Wars Holiday Special? 
Lucas will never release it officially.
The only thin I can say in my defense is that when legal copies become available, I do make a practice of buying them and/or getting rid of my bootleg. Examples: Doctor Who season 1, Highlander director's cut, Interview with a Vampire (ebook). Had 'em as bootlegs, bought when they finally were officially released.
I know it's not right, but, still, it soothes my ethical qualms.
It's weird, but if a legal item is priced too high for me, I just won't buy it. I won't pirate/bootleg it. But if it's not legally obtainable at all, I have no problem. Guess to protect themselves from my piratical urges, all publishers have to do is release titles, but price them ridiculously high. Say, a trillion dollars. 
Oh, it's been a long day and I'm getting silly...
bklvr896 wrote:
As far as Penguin goes, the entire staff at Penguin involved with eBooks and pricing eBooks must be smoking crack on regular basis, because they're just out there on eBook pricing. I've written off a lot of the Penguin authors I used to read regularly because of all the publishers, Penguin seems to be the one pushing the pricing as high as they can.
/me points at bklvr896's avatar. 
Doug_Pardee wrote:
bklvr896 wrote:
As far as Penguin goes, the entire staff at Penguin involved with eBooks and pricing eBooks must be smoking crack on regular basis, because they're just out there on eBook pricing. I've written off a lot of the Penguin authors I used to read regularly because of all the publishers, Penguin seems to be the one pushing the pricing as high as they can.
/me points at bklvr896's avatar.
Ok Doug, so now I need to change my avatar, I guess? 
Wrking21 wrote:I recently got a N2E. I had a kindle, I have 400+ books on it that I paid for and would love the option of putting them on my (superior) new reader. So please someone email me and let me know how to make that possible. It would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!!!
Do a google search. There are programs you can use, and there is also a Calibre plug-in, but you'll need to google for it, as generally people don't like to post links for things that are illegal.
RHWright wrote:
The only thin I can say in my defense is that when legal copies become available, I do make a practice of buying them and/or getting rid of my bootleg. Examples: Doctor Who season 1, Highlander director's cut, Interview with a Vampire (ebook). Had 'em as bootlegs, bought when they finally were officially released.
I know it's not right, but, still, it soothes my ethical qualms.
It's weird, but if a legal item is priced too high for me, I just won't buy it. I won't pirate/bootleg it. But if it's not legally obtainable at all, I have no problem. Guess to protect themselves from my piratical urges, all publishers have to do is release titles, but price them ridiculously high. Say, a trillion dollars.
That's about the same approach that anime fans have taken with fansubs -- no qualms about distributing subtitled episodes that fans have taken time to translate but they usually advise people pull those episodes and stop distributing them when the anime is actually available in their (usually US) market.
