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

[Sunder]

To add to this:

There is no law stating that I cannot take my books and read them
backwards, skip every other word, read the odd chapters in reverse and the
even chapters forward, or try to "decode" the book by translating it to
another language, ask someone with better eyes than mine to read it to me,
or chose to wear green tinted lenses while reading it, read it to kids or
the elderly, lend it - or rent it to friends, use it as a paperweight,
drop it on the floor, et cetera.  I can take it with me to other countries
and read it there, as well etc.  Once I bought it, it's mine.


DVD's "protected" by CSS on the other hand cannot be read except by
approved DVD players, and you can't (legally) "read them with another pair
of eyes" by playing them with a DVD player that doesn't have the right
key.

You're also not allowed - by policy - to fastforward past the annoying FBI
warning, or in some cases the evil commercials.  If you drop it on the
floor and scratch it, you're out $20 or whatever you paid for it.  You're
not allowed to use it in countries with regions different than what the
publisher approves, you're not allowed to decypher the contents of the DVD
by using DeCSS, you're not allowed to rent it to others, or charge
admission to others to see it.


If you bought an audio DVD and your car doesn't have a DVD player, or your
only portable stereo system can only play tapes, you're not allowed to
legally copy the music off the DVD onto other media to play in other
devices.

If you bought a copy protected audio CD, and you bypass it's protection
and somehow copy it to tape, so you can play it in your car, or to another
CD, so you have a backup incase it gets damaged in your car from extreme
temperatures, or gets scratched, or your car gets broken into or stolen,
you're now a criminal deserving the same kinds of jail times and fines as
would the theif who stole your car - if not more.


Some media are more equal than others.  This should not be the case - and
shouldn't even be possible -- except in a society where the media whores
and monguls are able to bribe those who are corrupt and write laws at the
same time.

----------------------Kaos-Keraunos-Kybernetos---------------------------
 + ^ + :25Kliters anthrax, 38K liters botulinum toxin, 500 tons of   /|\
  \|/  :sarin, mustard and VX gas, mobile bio-weapons labs, nukular /\|/\
<--*-->:weapons.. Reasons for war on Iraq - GWB 2003-01-28 speech.  \/|\/
  /|\  :Found to date: 0.  Cost of war: $800,000,000,000 USD.        \|/
 + v + :           The look on Sadam's face - priceless!       
--------_sunder_ at _sunder_._net_------- http://www.sunder.net ------------

On Sat, 25 Oct 2003, Major Variola (ret) wrote:

> If you want to publish a book on paper that
> prevents its xeroxing, that's fine.  Might be annoying, but its
> within your rights.  But when the State says that say
> scanners or image processing or figuring out how the book
> is bound is illegal (DMCA), well...

<SNIP>

> Its looking particularly grim because the Congressvermin are 0wn3d.
> That doesn't change the principles.  Just makes us yearn for regime
> change.
> 
> ----
> We are all  reporters, we are all book sellers. We are all first class
> objects.
> --Tim May