Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mistress Vondella 
I do have to wonder though....with how many people are against the "unlawful reading" of JKs books....how many have loaned them out? Let their friends read them for free? That would technically be illegal too, they didn't pay for it, and you didn't have a 'right to distribute' the way a library does (that's why it usually takes longer for libraries to get those books)
The comparison doesn't quite hold, though. I don't live in the US, so I'm not up to date on the intricacies of the silly DMCA, but at least over here, sharing copyrighted works (books, DVDs, CDs, whatever) with family members and friends is
not considered copyright infringement under the law. Not to mention that in some countries it's not illegal at all to
download things, only the upload is.
The legality of sites like Scribd, YouTube, Rapidshare etc. is difficult to determine because their content is added by users, not the site itself. Scribd's policy of reacting to DMCA notices is a fair compromise, I'd say.