Archive for October 23rd, 2007

This topic has been on my mind for quite some time, but I have been somewhat reluctant to write about it. My reluctance stemmed from not wanting to end up in a “How-to get on the e-book dark side” situation.  The following is something that happened and I would love to know what others think (Disclaimer: This is not exactly as it happen, but as I understood it).

A couple of months ago, someone (I’ll call her Jan) created a script that stripped the DRM of a certain e-book format (I’ll call the format .nbb).  The .nbb format had never been broken.  On top of that, the company responsible for the format had just experience a server failure that lasted a few weeks.  So many people were excited at the news of being able to free their books.  At first the script worked on its own, but Jan had to remove parts of her script to avoid conflict with the original writer of some of the files she used.  This new version required that the user had certain files available to him or her.  The files needed were not easily obtained, but depended on possession of a Software Development Kit (SDK), or the device the SDK supported. Fast forward about a week.  Jan gets a letter from the .nbb lawyers.  Needless to say that it was a cease and desist order along with some threatening to sue type of correspondence.  So in compliance the script was removed from her website, but what about the downloads prior to the removal? 

Forget about the legalities; just think about the ethical dilemma for the following:

1. Should the people who downloaded the script delete it from their PCs? 

2. Were they wrong to have used it in the first place; even if it was used on books that they bought with no intention of “sharing”?

3. Knowing why the script was deleted from the web, would someone be wrong to start distributing it among friends, newsgroups, forums, etc? 

4. After the three week down period, there was no real explanation or apology from the .nbb folks, and many people are now circumspect about buying this format.  They no longer trust the .nbb folks.  Does this matter?

5. Suppose, instead of being down for a few weeks, the company was gone altogether, like Gemstar.  There is no way to convert these books, so when the device dies, so does the library.  Does this change the game rules?

6.  What about Jan who freely gave this script to help people?

7.  If all this is wrong, why is it that using Convert Lit seems to be acceptable?

I’ve always considered myself an ethical person. I know that not everything is black and white. Those cases take care of themselves.  It’s that gray portion, that makes me think about the common good versus the universal wrong versus the slippery slope versus fair use.