3 ms·

I have a contrary opinion to most others here. PG should take steps to honour the copyright laws of other countries. My reasoning is this: Say hypothetically

I have a contrary opinion to most others here. PG should take steps to honour the copyright laws of other countries. My reasoning is this: Say hypothetically I started "Project Open" in a country with zero copyright protections. Then by that country's laws, I can list Amazons entire kindle catalog, buy all their books and scan them, and make it open access. And by the PG argument, ignore the laws of other countries that demand copyright protection for those books, until I get sued. At which point I block the site for the countries based on IP address (as if proxies and VPNs and people who travel don't exist) If someone did that, they'd probably be characterised as a pirate site and shut down by the FBI.

mcguire 9y ago
PG is honoring the laws of the US and, by extension, any country that had an appropriate treaty with the US. Which includes Germany.
- quickthrower2 9y ago
  That's OK if PG is only accessible in the US.
stordoff 9y ago
Two counterpoints: * The subset of things that are legal in all jurisdictions is probably rather small. Let's say hypothetically that a country bans the distribution of all works in English - should PG comply with that as well? * Why should I have to care about laws beyond my jurisdiction when setting up a service? That seems like a tremendous burden. > they'd probably be characterised as a pirate site and shut down by the FBI. That's a likely outcome, but if Project Open is operating lawfully in its own country, on what grounds should the FBI be able to claim jurisdiction? Unilaterally applying laws over foreign persons in foreign territories feels like an overstep.
- Mindwipe 9y ago
  > Let's say hypothetically that a country bans the distribution of all works in English - should PG comply with that as well? If there's an international treaty (or indeed several) backing it up? Probably. Unlikely that there would be though.

mcguire 9y ago

PG is honoring the laws of the US and, by extension, any country that had an appropriate treaty with the US. Which includes Germany.

quickthrower2 9y ago
That's OK if PG is only accessible in the US.

stordoff 9y ago

Two counterpoints: * The subset of things that are legal in all jurisdictions is probably rather small. Let's say hypothetically that a country bans the distribution of all works in English - should PG comply with that as well? * Why should I have to care about laws beyond my jurisdiction when setting up a service? That seems like a tremendous burden. > they'd probably be characterised as a pirate site and shut down by the FBI. That's a likely outcome, but if Project Open is operating lawfully in its own country, on what grounds should the FBI be able to claim jurisdiction? Unilaterally applying laws over foreign persons in foreign territories feels like an overstep.

Mindwipe 9y ago
> Let's say hypothetically that a country bans the distribution of all works in English - should PG comply with that as well? If there's an international treaty (or indeed several) backing it up? Probably. Unlikely that there would be though.