[Tichy]

"The retailer will still wipe an e-book if a court or regulatory body orders it"

To be fair, a court could probably also order the police to come to your house and confiscate your paper books. In that sense, you really don't own anything - ownership is a product of governments. (Or rather, a product of guns).

[mbyrne]

You have a point, but it is more accurate to say that government is established by people to enforce their concept of ownership amongst themselves. Government isn't source of the concept of ownership, it is the enforcer of that society's concept of ownership.

Having said that, I advocate that there is a overarching source of ownership rights, whether they are called moral rights or natural rights or whatever. For example, I think a person owns his own body and regardless of what the law says, the government can't visit your house and take one of your kidneys because someone else wants yours. Other people think that they should be able to, for the "good" of society.

[billybob]

I agree with you, but people who claim not to believe in moral absolutes, such as "it is wrong to steal someone's kidneys even if the law says you can," really should never protest any law, copyright or otherwise, except to say "I don't personally like that." To say "it's unjust" is to make a claim that, in their philosophy, means nothing.

Of course, as a Christian, I believe we're endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights...

[Tichy]

Or it could just be assumed that "it is unjust" means "I personally think it is unjust".