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Comment by scblock | Hacker News Reader

I purchase ebooks from Amazon, and I remove DRM from them immediately. I'm not pirating, I'm buying, but this asshole is saying otherwise.

DRM is unacceptable. If I can't remove it I won't buy at all.

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It's ironic, but the child post here says:

> same. I've bought it. I'm reading it on my kindle, phone, Linux laptop, etc and nobody's going to stop me.

Technically piracy (not that I particularly care). Technically in the USA removing DRM is also piracy, so I guess they're right? Again, don't actually care and would do the same, but I find your response ironic.

The law is pretty complicated though. I think if it's for yourself it's fair use, but 17 U.S. Code § 1201 says otherwise. I'm not a lawyer, sad.

I disagree. This is not "technically piracy".

Piracy is ill-defined and so it's hard to say what is or isn't for such an informal term, but even if it weren't: removing the DRM of stuff you purchased legally, and for your own use, is not "piracy" by any reasonable use of the word.

It might be illegal, but it's not piracy.

what's your definition of piracy?

I think copyright violation.If I sell you my painting I might not give you the right to copy it.

It even happens with animals of rare breed. They neuter them before sale.

I think most people's definition is roughly "obtaining and consuming media you haven't paid for in violation of copyright." Sometimes it's just about obtaining something in violation of copyright, even if you've already bought it (e.g. "I always buy things and then pirate them anyway because I hate the DRM but still want to support the creators."). Very few would consider stripping DRM on files you already have to be piracy, even if the DMCA forbids it, because the vast majority of people consider transfer of copyrighted material to be foundational to the meaning of the word.

back in the 90s this woulda been referred to as cracking.

Probably at Amazon HQ there lives a shitty PowerPoint, and one of that PowerPoint's slides says, "What to do with pirates who don't believe they are pirates". And this solution was in the speaker notes.

This. I can only open kindle books on the kindle app. Other apps allow for pen markup and better reading experiences like text to speech... I can't see myself buying any more books from the kindle store.

same. I've bought it. I'm reading it on my kindle, phone, Linux laptop, etc and nobody's going to stop me.

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