4 ms·

Which is the right way to discourage large-scale piracy. If I put my copy of an O'Reilly ebook online for anyone to grab, it's obvious the copy floating around

Which is the right way to discourage large-scale piracy. If I put my copy of an O'Reilly ebook online for anyone to grab, it's obvious the copy floating around is mine and I'm a jerk. But I can still give a copy of the PDF to a few friends and encourage them to buy a copy if they like it. And, there's absolutely no way this is going to somehow bone me in the future. The authentication server isn't going to go down, it's not going to mistakenly think I lent out my "last copy" or lock me out of my purchase because I don't have internet access.

pmjordan 16y ago
I wonder if there's any legal precedent for a friend being the jerk in a scenario like this. "Friend" uploads ebook/music track/magazine I bought and "lent" him/her to file sharing site or whatever. It's my name in there, so I'm going to be the one who's going to be sued.
- kragen 16y ago
  Yes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Caridi#Piracy_incident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Caridi#Piracy_incident
  - Entlin 16y ago
    In other words, giving your book to somebody in good faith but the person then pirates it will cost you $300'000 (or at least it did in this case with Caridi and DVD screeners). In other words, you better not share, unless you've got a lot of money laying around...
  - pmjordan 16y ago
    Interesting. Pre-release screener copies, which you're presumably not even allowed to show friends, would seem like a different kettle of fish than files which are publicly available for purchase.
michael_dorfman 16y ago
Sure there's a way this could somehow bone you in the future-- if one of those "friends" you loan the copy to decides to put it online for everyone to grab, everyone thinks you seeded it, and suddenly, you're a jerk.
- khafra 16y ago
  The jerkiness of your friends is transitive in many other contexts as well, so I don't think this is a problem with this technique in particular.

pmjordan 16y ago

I wonder if there's any legal precedent for a friend being the jerk in a scenario like this. "Friend" uploads ebook/music track/magazine I bought and "lent" him/her to file sharing site or whatever. It's my name in there, so I'm going to be the one who's going to be sued.

kragen 16y ago
Yes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Caridi#Piracy_incident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Caridi#Piracy_incident
- Entlin 16y ago
  In other words, giving your book to somebody in good faith but the person then pirates it will cost you $300'000 (or at least it did in this case with Caridi and DVD screeners). In other words, you better not share, unless you've got a lot of money laying around...
- pmjordan 16y ago
  Interesting. Pre-release screener copies, which you're presumably not even allowed to show friends, would seem like a different kettle of fish than files which are publicly available for purchase.

michael_dorfman 16y ago

Sure there's a way this could somehow bone you in the future-- if one of those "friends" you loan the copy to decides to put it online for everyone to grab, everyone thinks you seeded it, and suddenly, you're a jerk.

khafra 16y ago
The jerkiness of your friends is transitive in many other contexts as well, so I don't think this is a problem with this technique in particular.