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I saw this coming. A few days ago, I read that IA's lawyers argued fair use in part based on "transforming" the content by making copies at scale. I was surpris

I saw this coming. A few days ago, I read that IA's lawyers argued fair use in part based on "transforming" the content by making copies at scale. I was surprised & astonished that they'd try such sophistry, since a verbatim copy isn't transformative at all. I felt IA's lawyers were grasping at straws if they were making that fair use argument. Everyone would do better to lobby Congress to change the law to allow for limited digital lending kind of like what IA did (notwithstanding the "emergency" lending).

thebooktocome 4y ago
> since a verbatim copy isn't transformative at all It's not a verbatim copy; the argument specifically involved converting content from one format (physical book) to another (ebook). > Everyone would do better to lobby Congress Good luck outspending the big publishers. How many people who work for a living does it take to match Disney's capacity to bribe Congresscritters?
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  Format shifting can either be a verbatim copy (as it was in this case), or also involve editing (which this case did not.) Personal-use format shifting has sometimes been found to be fair use; but this is not that. > How many people who work for a living does it take to match Disney’s capacity to bribe Congresscritters? Don’t have to bribe if you have enough people convincingly committed to vote on the issue.
- baryphonic 4y ago
  > How many people who work for a living does it take to match Disney's capacity to bribe Congresscritters? Why so cynical? Who's more captured: Congress or the IP Bar? If everyone commenting and reading about this on HN called their members of Congress within a few hours on Monday afternoon, there would be serious buzz on Capitol Hill. Several hundred to a few thousand people all calling in about a similar issue to members of both parties is noticed. Remember the "SOPA" thing Big Content tried to ram through a decade ago? It failed because dozens upon dozens of members were spooked. You know why lobbyists are listened to? They're not "bribing" members of Congress; they are simply presenting an unrebutted story. EDIT: forgot to address the "transformative" thing. Format shifting is not transformative, any more than bootlegging a movie in the theater or taking a photo of a copyrighted piece hanging in a gallery are. The meaning of the work is almost certainly identical whether it's on a physical page or on a screen.

thebooktocome 4y ago

> since a verbatim copy isn't transformative at all It's not a verbatim copy; the argument specifically involved converting content from one format (physical book) to another (ebook). > Everyone would do better to lobby Congress Good luck outspending the big publishers. How many people who work for a living does it take to match Disney's capacity to bribe Congresscritters?

dragonwriter 4y ago
Format shifting can either be a verbatim copy (as it was in this case), or also involve editing (which this case did not.) Personal-use format shifting has sometimes been found to be fair use; but this is not that. > How many people who work for a living does it take to match Disney’s capacity to bribe Congresscritters? Don’t have to bribe if you have enough people convincingly committed to vote on the issue.
baryphonic 4y ago
> How many people who work for a living does it take to match Disney's capacity to bribe Congresscritters? Why so cynical? Who's more captured: Congress or the IP Bar? If everyone commenting and reading about this on HN called their members of Congress within a few hours on Monday afternoon, there would be serious buzz on Capitol Hill. Several hundred to a few thousand people all calling in about a similar issue to members of both parties is noticed. Remember the "SOPA" thing Big Content tried to ram through a decade ago? It failed because dozens upon dozens of members were spooked. You know why lobbyists are listened to? They're not "bribing" members of Congress; they are simply presenting an unrebutted story. EDIT: forgot to address the "transformative" thing. Format shifting is not transformative, any more than bootlegging a movie in the theater or taking a photo of a copyrighted piece hanging in a gallery are. The meaning of the work is almost certainly identical whether it's on a physical page or on a screen.