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I am passing along this very interesting passage from this week's NY
Times Magazine Ethics column. In answer to a question about the
rightness of copying works as a whole, the NY Times "Ethicist" notes:

"Although copying an entire work is seldom legal, it is sometimes
ethical - for example, if the work is unavailable for purchase (most
books ever published are now out of print); if it is available only in
an archaic format (a 78-r.p.m. recording, a Betamax tape, a clay
tablet); if you already own a copy and want another in a more usable
format (less scratchy, fewer coffee stains). But such reasonable
situations might not inoculate you against lawsuits. The law is an
expression not just of ethics but of power. "

Shortcut to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08wwln_ethicist.html

This distinction between legality and ethicality is curious. Is this a
rationalization? (And what about the last sentence in the quotation?)
Ed

 "Thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season"
                    T.S. Eliot, "Gerontion"

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Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask])
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