[LMB] Copyright (WAS: AKICOTL Usenet for a Dummy?)

[James M. BRYANT G4CLF]

Mark Allums remarks that:-

 >I'm a little uneasy with the rationale that just
 >because the author has been paid once, that makes
 >it okay to copy his work.

Or hers (on this list)! I do agree if "copy"
implies that the copy is to be passed on, but
not if it merely means that my own copy is
becomes available to me in another format.

The implied contract when you buy a book is that
you may read it as many times as you like, and
lend it to your friends (but not commercially).
While it is on loan you lose access to it.

So if I buy a book I should be able to transfer
its contents to a more convenient medium, but
not pass on the original book and keep the
contents in the new medium. I wish to do the
former, not the latter.

As I have said here in the past, I do not want
to see Lois and her cats flipping burgers for
a living because she gets nothing for writing.
(I think I said it of Pat Wrede last time, and
Lois promptly offered to pay money to watch
Pat's cats flipping burgers, but the principle
is sound.)

But having paid for a book, and not having
parted with it while retaining a copy, I do
consider that how I read it, in the privacy of
my own home, and not in the street where I might
scare the horses, is nobody's concern but my own.

James - who has ridden a horse twice in the last
forty years, but nevertheless has a soft spot
for them (Copperhead and Demon excepted, I
suspect) and would never wish to scare them