from [log in to unmask] 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" *********************************************** LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for Language Learning (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/). Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]) ***********************************************