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How is this different than an editor compiling commonly known knowledge into an encyclopedia and selling it to the public?

It isn't, which explains wikipedia.

> Tragic that this is what we are reduced to as a society.

Yeah, it sure is tragic that there are technologies that exist that allow us to bypass things like this.

Can you expand? What's tragic?

That there are copyright restrictions on this content.

Who cares? You said it yourself; torrent it.