[free-sklyarov] Seybold session yesterday

[Kurt Foss]

At 12:59 AM -0700 9/27/01, Christopher R. Maden wrote:
>There are certainly problems with that argument; in particular, as 
>Alex and Vladmir K. have pointed out here, the terms of use for many 
>ebooks isn't known in advance; Dmitry's lawyer pointed this out at 
>the session.

Actually, that was a point _I_ made in response to Allan Adler's
premise that if the marketplace doesn't like the restrictions made on
certain eBooks, they should refuse to buy them. I pointed that the
flaw in his logic is that publishers don't *provide* that information
prior to purchase -- you only learn what permissions you have *after*
you acquire an eBook.

Nonetheless, Allan repeated his statement later in the session,
completely ignoring the Catch-22 situation created by publishers.

Seems we need a "Lemon Law" for eBooks that says permissions/flaws
need to be honestly disclosed prior to purchase. After checking with
Adobe on this point, there's no technological reason this can't be
done with its current DRM solution.

rgds ~ Kurt
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