10-06-2006, 03:35 AM
Ave Mike,
we were just kidding.
Being a journalist (and also jurisprudent), I’ll never copy a whole book and offer it to the broad public, regardless of the download time. :lol:
Scanning parts of a title for personal and scientific purposes is another story, especially when the title is out of print for some decades. Preparing reconstruction drawings by scaling different helmet photos to the same size for example will need a (legal) scan.
I also have no problems to sell my TV to buy a brilliant new book, because the author and publisher deserve their money. I just hesitate to pay fantasy prices to second-hand dealers. Therefore I’ve set up my personal limit (which is a multiple of the former original price) and started a searching order on abbooks (and others). That’s matching an old German tradition. Books should be available to the public at fair prices and not become a matter of speculators.
By the way: In Germany, illegal copying of books isn’t the main problem. In contrary, often the publishers find themselves in the dock, because a lot of them won’t correctly square and pay the authors. In fact, even the big publishers often issue some editions in other countries without permission or knowledge of the authors (who surprisingly find their works in foreign bookshops while being on vacation).
Unfortionately no english publisher possessing the exploitation rights seems to think about earning a quick pound sterling by issuing a German ‘undercover’ edition of Robinson ;-) )
we were just kidding.
Being a journalist (and also jurisprudent), I’ll never copy a whole book and offer it to the broad public, regardless of the download time. :lol:
Scanning parts of a title for personal and scientific purposes is another story, especially when the title is out of print for some decades. Preparing reconstruction drawings by scaling different helmet photos to the same size for example will need a (legal) scan.
I also have no problems to sell my TV to buy a brilliant new book, because the author and publisher deserve their money. I just hesitate to pay fantasy prices to second-hand dealers. Therefore I’ve set up my personal limit (which is a multiple of the former original price) and started a searching order on abbooks (and others). That’s matching an old German tradition. Books should be available to the public at fair prices and not become a matter of speculators.
By the way: In Germany, illegal copying of books isn’t the main problem. In contrary, often the publishers find themselves in the dock, because a lot of them won’t correctly square and pay the authors. In fact, even the big publishers often issue some editions in other countries without permission or knowledge of the authors (who surprisingly find their works in foreign bookshops while being on vacation).
Unfortionately no english publisher possessing the exploitation rights seems to think about earning a quick pound sterling by issuing a German ‘undercover’ edition of Robinson ;-) )
Greetings from germania incognita
Heiko (Cornelius Quintus)
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Heiko (Cornelius Quintus)
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
