Copyright Law and eBay

[anatosuchus]

Can anyone tell me if what this fellow is doing is illegal? I think his disclaimer on item 2 is worthless. In effect he is selling "backup" DVDs of books on the understanding that the buyer must have originals of the work. I'll bet a wad of cash he doesn't own the source material himself!

eBay item 1
eBay item 2I've got a mind to become a right

Comments

[sister_savage]

Gawd, I hate copyright theft...as you know.

Shop 'im!

[bileandvitriol]

What's copyright theft?

[anatosuchus]

Use of or profit from someone else's intellectual property in violation of copyright law?

[bileandvitriol]

Aren't you thinking of copyright *infringement*?
There's no theft - if you make a copy of a work that someone else holds the copyright to, you haven't stolen their work from them, you haven't taken it away from them. They don't have any less of their work than they did yesterday before you made the copy. It doesn't matter if you make one copy or a million - they still won't have any less of their work than they did before you started, so nothing has been stolen from them.

[ed_fortune]

Hmm, if you look on a sharefiling site, some of those 'collections' are commonly available, in the same order he's got them listed...

(Goes back to downloading BSG...)

[nevboo]

And yet they instantly bounce any ad with "Pussy" in it as in "Pussy cat". School girl error there

[ed_fortune]

Ah, but the word theft is used as short hand to describe the fact that it's a copy of a product the person has no right to sell.

The fact that technolgy has overtaken conventional models for the sale of original material is currently moot, in the eyes of the existing law.

[bileandvitriol]

If you sell a copy you have no right to sell, who did you take that copy away from? Who lost their copy when you "stole" it from them?

Surely the word "theft" is primarily used as an emotive form of advertising from an industry-association whose industry's revenue stream is threatened by the activity in question? An attempt to mischaracterise that threatening activity loudly and publicly enough so that public opinion is altered to encourage Parliament to change the law to enact trade protectionist legislation in the face of technological advancements that have undermined the industry's raison d'etre?

Don't get me wrong, I think that wilful lawbreaking should be subject to the penalties laid down in the law enacted by the representatives we elect. I just think that wilful misrepresentation of what the law is by FACT, the BPI, or anyone else, is also unacceptable, and needs to be challenged, pilloried, mocked, and rebutted whenever I see it, cause I don't like liars, especially when they lie for money.

[ed_fortune]

Who lost there copy? No one. Who lost their profit margin? Everyone along the chain. How do you think your local shop keeper would describe it?

I don't disagree with you when it comes to FACT, RIAA etc. I'd rather give my money directly to the creators and their handlers, rather than be pushed product through an elabaorate machine designed to fleece me of my cash.

[bileandvitriol]

What profit margin was lost again? Did you buy a copy, then go steal the money from the bank account of the retailer after it left your credit card?
If you had to buy your copy, would you? Or would you perhaps think "Is D&D 3.5 really so good that I want to shell out hundreds more quid than I already have for D&D 3, AD&D2, AD&D, D&D Basic/Expert/Master/Immortal etc? Or shall I use things I own and add houserules so they work, and spend the money on taking the missus to Tenerife for a week of sun, sand, and exorbitant cocktails served in coconuts with those little umbrellas in them? Perhaps the latter."

[miss_perdita]

Go for it, I hate it when you think you've found an ace comic collection bargain and it turns out its a DV-Fucking-D! The whelp has simply scanned all the pages to a disc and is making cash out of someone elses work!
Shut 'em down!