5 ms·
The chances of anyone raising a copyright claim for a 36 year old book relating to obsolete technology are quite low.
by saltyshake 8y ago
The chances of anyone raising a copyright claim for a 36 year old book relating to obsolete technology are quite low.
- beefhash 8y agoTo me, it's not the chance of somebody getting in trouble that worries me, but rather the blatant disregard and disrespect for intellectual property rights.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- jacquesm 8y agoThat's all fine and good but Xerox is no longer in the business of selling this book and does not suffer any harm from the reproduction, neither do the authors. It's a bit like public libraries, which also 'hurt' book sales, and there the books might even still be in print. The Smalltalk 80 Blue Book is an important part of computer history, the more copies there are of it, digital or otherwise the better.
- saltyshake 8y agoimho letting more people read this material shows higher respect to it and its creators than letting it be forgotten. The book is out of print and not available otherwise. No one is making money off this book.
- _kst_ 8y agoHave you talked to your representatives about changing copyright law so that out-of-print books can legally be copied?
- jplayer01 8y agoIntellectual property rights aren't holy scriptures. Not every right should be respected and it seems dishonest to play that card. It's the same idea as law isn't moral just because it's the law. It can still be unjust and immoral, depending on the circumstances. To follow a hard line of always adhering to the law without any regard for the consequences or context can lead to bad outcomes.
- coldtea 8y agoTo me it's the blatant regard and respect for intellectual property rights, as if they were some God-blessed rights. And this on a forum called "_hacker_ news". What happened to "Information wants to be free"? We're not talking about stealing some artist's latest album or pirating some fresh program. This is unmonetizable core CS lore 40 years old. Anything after 20 years or so should get into the public domain.