"If you didn't pay for it, you've stolen it!"

[BillyGOTO]

On Fri, Oct 24, 2003 at 03:11:27PM -0700, Tim May wrote:
> On Friday, October 24, 2003, at 02:04  PM, BillyGOTO wrote:
> 
> >On Fri, Oct 24, 2003 at 02:14:03PM -0400, Roy M. Silvernail wrote:
> >>Major Variola writes:
> >>
> >>>What *is* a library?
> >>>
> >>>1. A library is legal.  A library needn't be licensed by any state
> >>>entity.
> >>>
> >>>2. Thus, I can declare my computer a library.  The only requirement 
> >>>is
> >>>that I own a license to what I lend, and that only 1 user exercise
> >>>that license at a time.  That is what a library is.
> >>
> >>Well stated.
> >
> >Not really.  Libraries have to pay more than we do for their
> >subscriptions.

> Be careful using the phrase "have to" in any discussion of legal issues.
> Does government force libraries to pay more for some subscriptions? Not 
> to my knowledge.
> 
> Do some publishers have different rates for individuals versus 
> libraries and other institutions? Yes.

Okay, I'll try to be more careful.  They are given a choice by the copyright
holders to either pay more than we do OR to not get a subscription.
Is this not the case?

> Are libraries required by law to reimburse authors and publishers when 
> they allow books and magazines to be looked at by patrons or checked 
> out by them? No laws that I know of.

Books and magazines aren't guarded by cryptogremlins the way digital
media could be.  The cryptogremlins are embedded, "tamperproof", and are
given absolute authority over their assigned treasure by the DMCA.

> In short, some publishers charge some customers more, and others less. 
> In this sense, an Intel or a Carnegie Public Library "has to" pay 
> higher rates to these particular publishers, but this is certainly not 
> germane to issues of legality of libraries.

Your position is that there is a difference between the set of lending
restrictions imposed by vanilla copyright law and the set of lending
restrictions imposed by private library subscription contracts with
print publishers.  Yes, agreed.

I'm saying that there is an even wider difference between the lending
restrictions on the gremlin-guarded digital media versus those on
printed media.  You usually don't have to talk your way past a robotic
Pat Schroeder avatar to read a printed book, as you do with an encrypted
scientific journal on DVD.  Some of these journals have announced that
they will be discontinuing their print editions altogether because they
are fed up with libraries letting the public look at them.  Some of the
digital publications you might ask for at a university library are
boobytrapped and crisscrossed with razor-sharp bardwire (not a typo).
Librarians can't let you see it unless they have a way to bill you.

http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/intro.shtml
| Unlike paper materials, digital information generally is not purchased
| by the library; rather it is licensed by the library from information
| providers. A license usually takes the form of a written contract or
| agreement between the library and the owner of the rights to distribute
| digital information. 

If we're looking for a model on which to base this homebrew
personal-computer/digital-lending-library, think of how "REAL" lending
libraries are handling digital content.  Suddenly considering yourself a
one-man library doesn't give you any new liberties than you had as an
individual, when it comes to DRM.  They are dealing with the same
problems that we are dealing with.  If you go to the Library of Congress
and protest outside of the DMCA review hearings, librarians will shake
your hand and congratulate you on your patriotism.

The way I see it, we're taking two leaps here.. One leap is thinking of
ourselves as individuals with the same rights as libraries under law.
This first leap has landed firmly.  The second leap is thinking of our
personal MP3s and digital media licenses (let's say online journal
subscriptions, IEEE spec PDFs, or eBooks) on the same terms as we would
consider our IKEA bookshelf of printed material.  This second leap isn't
looking so good from where we stand in 2003.

I think of my PDA as a library.  Hell, I'm Johnny fuckin' Appleseed.
Most people are pretty generous with beaming apps and data around.  You
need X?  What do you know, I have X.  Here you go...  Just hold still
for 5 ... more ...  seconds ...  OK.  Enjoy.  My PDA already has a slot
for SD cards.  If the crypto-Nazis wanted to put a robot guard on my IR,
BT, and USB ports, I don't know that I could stop them.