Re: CD of all Files on Asimov

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <32383dd4.83985719@news.gatech.edu>,
Dan Baisley <gt7116a@prism.gatech.edu> wrote:
>On 12 Sep 1996 05:28:32 GMT, nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates) wrote:
>Read the liscnceing agreement on any software package. You have not
>purchased a copy of the software, you have purchased the media and a
>liscence to use  the software on it. If you have already paid the
>liscencing fee, you can legally run one copy of that software,
>regardless of where you obtained it.

   You snipped my book example, and tie-in to computer software, funny
that. While there's no licensing agreement on the back of the book
(probably because books were printed long before lawyers made it
necessary to hire more lawyers), you are entitled to the contents of
the book once legitimately purchased or lent (eg libraries). Sure, if
I didn't take good care of a book and it got run over by a car,
borrowing a friend's copy is fine.

   HOWEVER, the need for replacement books does not mean that there
are places where you can get "replacement" books for free, especially
ones that you never bought in the first place. Publishing companies
would shut you down with good reason. This is even true in cases where
the originals aren't available anywhere new. (The technical term for
this is "deal with it," by the way). 

   I'd love to get my hands on a bunch of Science Fiction classics in
new/barely used shape, but they are out of print. That does NOT give
me the right to go down to the library and make a quick trip to
Kinko's and get my own. That does NOT give some punk the right to
upload a book to a ftp site where I can download the book in text form
and read it for free. So what do I do? Look at used bookstores, and
bug publishing houses to reprint them. (Should be an excellent
re-issue of E.E. Doc Smith's Lensman series coming out next spring, in
hardcover, possibly original jacket art and illustrations, btw)

   If these pirate sites halfway believed in this "we're a replacement
disk service" lie, then they'd do something about making sure that
people _were_ replacing things they owned. Not so at all-- as it
stands right now, anyone can grab what they want, when they want, no
questions asked.

   Also, "replacement" does not cover downloading stuff you used to
own, but sold off a while back when you dumped your Apple II. You sold
your computer to some teenager, you sold any and all rights to your
software. bundled with the computer. You want the software back, you
buy it again-- you got the money when you sold it. (Same thing with
all software. If you sell off a 286 or Mac SE with Microsloth Word on
it and buy a Pentium/PPC, you must buy another copy of Word for that
new computer, and install it on there. Or, you sell the 286/SE with
no traces of word on the drive or disks.)

   You sell it, your rights to a free "replacement" copy got
transferred out of your hands. Thus, every pirate who says "I used to
have a copy of XYZ for my Apple II, but I sold it off; can I get
another" is just that-- a pirate.

   "Replacement" is a convenient lie to cover maybe 1% of asimov's
traffic. If it was anywhere more common, the disk images would be in
an Apple II format, like .shk. As they stand now, the formats are
extremely difficult to download and unpack for the person who has just
a 128K Apple //e, 5.25" drives, and a modem. The disks are in a format
perfect for mass pirating by people who haven't owned an Apple in
years, and definitely don't have the original disks.

   As I said a while back, Asimov is a pirate site, by pirates, for
pirates. Cut the baloney about being a service, as that's not what the
evidence shows is happening.

Nathan Mates


--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
# What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_?
# Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors
# think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places?  -R.A. Heinlein