Letters to PC World

Copy Rights and Wrongs

Dylan F. Tweney's article "Hollywood vs. Your PC" [November], describing the prospect of copy-protection hardware, does not do justice to the bigger picture. Digital distributors want to overcome the public-domain provision of copyright law by wrapping content in an unbreakable digital format that they control. The original copyright act allowed content creators to profit from their work for a limited time, provided such work was actually disclosed (published) and eventually made available for free (public domain). Digital distributors want to hold copyrights in perpetuity and are trying to control all data processing with their demands. I, for one, do not want their intrusion.

Stephen Richard Levine, Westlake Village, California

Sites like the late Napster and the alive-and-well Kazaa exist for one purpose: to facilitate the illegal distribution of copyrighted material.

Is it any wonder that the recording and motion picture industries are responding by using their monetary and political clout to impose draconian copy-protection schemes on equipment manufacturers?

I am reminded of a line from the old Pogo comic strip: "We have met the enemy and he is us."

James J. Dunbar, Colorado Springs

California Representative Howard L. Berman's efforts to unplug peer-to-peer networks might be good training for going after the really big theft network. I'm talking about libraries. Hundreds of thousands of them all around the world let people check out books and read every word without paying a cent to the publisher or the author. I hope Rep. Berman can put a stop to this unconscionable behavior.

Joey Harrison, Toledo

If your computer were hacked to enforce copyright laws [as the Berman bill would apparently allow], how could you track the source of the attack? To take legal action for the damages, you would have to know who attacked you.

Also, if a commercially produced CD/DVD crashes your computer to the point of requiring a manufacturer repair, as mentioned in the article, wouldn't the maker of that disc be liable--especially if there is no disclaimer or warning? How many class-action suits would follow?

Paul Sarran, via the Internet

E-Books for Free

Brad Grimes listed sites that sell e-books ["Read Any Good E-Books Lately?" Web Savvy, November], but a person just getting into this medium probably would not want to spend much. A page from Barnes & Noble's site lets you download free, full-version e-books. You can also download dictionaries for free from Microsoft. For both sites, you'll need to use Microsoft Reader to read the books.

Kevin Li, via the Internet

Better, No-Fade Prints

Your article "The Fade Factor" [News and Trends, November] should have said that you must use only the papers that are listed in a printer's menu. Stray from this list, and your print quality will probably deteriorate. Each printer should make very good photo prints-- if you stick with only the specified papers.

Glenn MacRill, Houston

As your piece points out, photo prints from ink jets are subject to premature fade and color shift over time, and such changes will differ dramatically from one ink jet printer manufacturer to another.

However, the article does not mention third-party ink and paper developers, such as our company. These firms, we believe, have been vital in pushing original equipment manufacturers to raise the bar in promises of long-lasting photographic prints from ink jets.

For example, in the charts of Wilhelm Imaging Research, our Generations Ink and Media have obtained longevity results well beyond those of any of the manufacturers mentioned (more than 100 years).

Norm Levy, President, MediaStreet.com