Greetings All,
For more information on copyright and the digital world see, first and
foremost http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html - "In the Beginning
was the Command Line" by Neal Stephenson.

Also;

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090724/0445155649.shtml - Should
Copyright Be Abolished On Academic Work?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/18/free-ebooks-cory-doctorow
- Why free ebooks should be part of the plot for writers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/18/informationeconomy -
Free data sharing is here to stay
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/oct/05/free-online-content-cory-doctorow
- The real cost of free
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1040628/drm-complete-lie - DRM
is a complete lie
http://www.thepublicdomain.org/download/ - "The Public Domain" book

Regards,

Morgan Leigh
PhD Candidate
School of Sociology and Social Work
University of Tasmania

On 7/11/2011 2:45 AM, Pitch wrote:
> Aloha,
> 
> On 11/6/2011 2:34 AM, Margaret Gouin wrote:
> 
>> Pitch--google 'remove DRM from ebook' and see how many hits you get.
>> Once the DRM is off the file, it can be shared as widely as you wish.
>> Of course you would only do this to lend your books to friends...
> 
> Yes, ereader users may join the ranks of haxxors and leet haxxors,
> modify components or elements of the warez that enable their devices
> to do out of compliance things. We can take some pretty easy-to-do
> steps to get our ereader devices to go beyond their designed-in
> capabilities and functionality. Download a little software. Swap a
> memory chip. Stuff like that.
> 
> Because, to remain in compliance with conditions of edistributor/
> hosting network registration, device warranties, and digital rights
> agreements, ereader devices are fettered. Out of the box, these
> devices do not do all and everything that they--technically--potentially
> can do. With a little hacking, higher end ereader devices (Color Nook,
> for example) can be turned into pretty good Android tablet computers.
> 
> What's more, with a bit of care, the hacks can be done in a manner
> that preserves (gives the hosting network the impression that)
> the ereader device is in compliance and in warranty.
> 
> But the key question, for me, at least, is not: Which list members
> are skillful enough and willing enough to hack their ereader devices?
> 
> The key question is: How does, or how will, the academic world
> regard hacked ereader devices and out of compliance access and use
> of ebooks and other electronic resources?
> 
> This is not a simple and easy sort of question.
> 
> Is out of compliance access to and use of an ebook, for instance,
> a variety of plagiarism? It certainly is a violation of digital rights.
> 
> Digital rights agreements serve, among other things, to ensure that
> authors get paid for the sale of electronic versions of their writings.
> Does the academic world intend to condone out of compliance access
> and use that keeps authors from getting paid? Or give it a wink and
> a nod?
> 
> Plenty of list members are authors. Some are publishers. Some are
> professional academics in universities and other organizations. Out
> of compliance ereader use and ebook access may entangle employers
> and the workplace in a variety of liabilities and condemnations from
> parties that demand only in compliance use and access.
> 
> Or put some folks between two stools as users and digital rights holders.
> 
> Honestly, I can't say how I might answer questions like these.
> 
> I mean, I see the advantages of hacked devices and wide access to
> ebooks. But I also see the advantages of authors and publishers
> getting justly paid for their work.
> 
> And I gotta say that digital rights are far more complicated vis a
> vis reader/users than copyright for physical books. It's fairly safe
> to presume that all the physical books in a university library, for
> instance, are in copyright or out. We can look at a page with a date.
> 
> But with ebooks, we encounter a situation in which the identical
> file may be in compliance for some and out of compliance for others.
> Maybe we can tell which is which. Maybe we can't.
> 
> What I am coming to realize more and more, however, is that ereaders
> and their uses and technologies require academia and intellectuals
> to think long and hard about stuff that we scarcely imagined a few
> years ago.
> 
> Musing Am I A Freewheeling Haxxor Or Do I Go By The Book? Rose,
> 
> Pitch
>  

-- 
Regards,

Morgan Leigh
PhD Candidate
School of Sociology and Social Work
University of Tasmania