Latvian Police Raid Teacher's Home for Uploading $4.00 Textbook

richlv writes "Latvian police recently raided the home of a history teacher and confiscated his computer. The crime? Scanning a history book and making it available on his website covering various topics on history. The raid was based on a complaint from the publisher (Google Translate to English), which has a near-monopoly on educational materials in Latvia, often linked with shady connections in the Ministry of Education."

and in the us the same book will be $200-$400 upda

[Joe_Dragon]

and in the us the same book will be $200-$400 updated 1-2 times a year.

Free protip

[SuperBanana]

The raid was based on a complaint from the publisher (Google Translate to English), which has a near-monopoly on educational materials in Latvia, often linked with shady connections in the Ministry of Education

Here's a free protip. Live in a former soviet bloc?

Are you lacking the skills to be anonymous?

Is there a monopoly on something?

Don't challenge it.

Finis.

Re:please stop calling it piracy

[kwerle]

File sharing is what you do with something you own.

Piracy is sharing files that you do not own.

Civil disobedience is peacefully breaking the law for reasons you feel are just.

Movies are about fiction (virtually always).

Some educator uploading material they do not own is piracy. It may also be civil disobedience.

Some 12 year old downloading Katy Perry is piracy. It probably is not civil disobedience.

Re: Do they even have fair use in Latvia?

[Kell Bengal]

Hi - not Latvian, but a professor (with some little IP education). Generally speaking, "educational use" is not held to mean "so long as it's for education, do whatever you want". Educational use typically means discussion and criticism - using excerpts and passages to demonstrate a particular point, or using an example from a text. If the teacher had used fractions of the book as part of his lessons, he would likely have been covered under fair use provisions in many nations (including the US and Australia, where I teach). Conversely, wholesale duplication of a text is rarely considered fair use in an educational context.

someone from Latvia

[Anonymous Coward]

This story was covered in local TVs. Although I also hate all those copyright guys. But this time its more or less Ok. They warned that guy many times. When he didnt react they went to police.

Re:Don't copy that floppy!

[pantaril]

I agree. On the other hand the response should be proportional. Uploading a textbook should have involved an officer serving a warrant.

According to later comment from AC from Latvia, the police/publisher warned him several times before raiding his computer.
Personaly i think this is horrible but the issue is with the copyright law and not with the police course of action.

Re:Don't copy that floppy!

[Alex Belits]

INB4 wikipedia is full of propaganda. Then correct them. Controversial articles are easy to spot.

If it's 19th to 21th century, it's someone regurgitating modern propaganda.

Dig deeper, make your own mind.

You can't "dig deeper" when all you have is a collection of propaganda workers and their parrots, all trying to out-shout each other while trying to keep the impression of legitimacy.