German Book Publishers Plan To Sue Thousands For File Sharing
from the apparently-they've-learned-nothing dept
It's difficult to believe that anyone could look at the disastrous five years of the RIAA suing fans and think, "hey, we should do that too!" However, that appears to be exactly what some German book publishers have decided. Michael Scott points us to the news that the head of the German book publishers' assocation has announced plans to "sue thousands" and talked about how file sharing systems were the equivalent of organized crime. He's also demanding that ISPs implement a three strikes plan. Apparently, he hasn't discovered that file sharing of books, when done right, can help boost demand for book sales.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: books, file sharing, germany, lawsuits
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Stealing!
I say you've deprived the originator of a digital representation of his work!! Copying those bits and bytes from the interweb slightly weakens the original--this phenomenon is obvious by observing "old books" which have been put online, they're all bleached and faded. That's because people are making digital copies!
Stop people from degrading our digital books!!!
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If the author pens another novel that I read in ebook format, see para. 1 above.
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Re:
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Plus I do most of my reading in bed or on the can.
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Why bother with real books at all
I prefer reading on screen.
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Re: Why bother with real books at all
MOST quality books that make the bestseller lists are not series. So while your point has merit, it only applies to a small subset of the problem.
HOWEVER your attitude - 'let's find a way to make this work' - is what's needed. Not lawyers.
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Re: Re: Why bother with real books at all
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In my opinion an ebook is more of a supplement than a replacement. I prefer to be able to sit in my bed/chair and read a book, but there are times when a ebook comes in handy. If I want to easily search for something in the book (if it was a technical book, cookbook, etc.) then having the ebook is really nice. But just because I got an ebook for free doesn't mean I wouldn't love to have a physical copy.
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welcome to the 21st century
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Re: welcome to the 21st century
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Yeah, ok, good luck with that, Herr Deutsch Buchverlage.
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