Quote - On the other hand if the idea is just to be safe because nobody knows the real answer than should we be acting as if we do know the answer? 

No, the real answer is basic copyright law.  This is an ordinary application of copyright as it applies to pretty much all kinds of intellectual property.  You cannot take photographs of the pages of a book and sell those, unless you have permission from the author.  You cannot take a tape recording of an MP3 and resell that, unless you have permission of the copyright holder there.  You cannot take a book that you bought in PDF format, convert it to plain text, and redistribute it without permission from the author.  Just like I cannot take someone else's digital artwork, photoshop it a bit, and sell that (a variation on what is being discussed here.)  Etc etc.  This really is fairly hammered out copyright law.  People can dislike it or find it inconvenient or whatever, but it's still very widely applied and accepted law.

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html
A work is “fixed” in a tangible medium of expression when its embodiment in a copy or phonorecord, by or under the authority of the author, is sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated for a period of more than transitory duration. A work consisting of sounds, images, or both, that are being transmitted, is “fixed” for purposes of this title if a fixation of the work is being made simultaneously with its transmission.

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“Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works” include two-dimensional and three-dimensional works of fine, graphic, and applied art, photographs, prints and art reproductions, maps, globes, charts, diagrams, models, and technical drawings, including architectural plans. Such works shall include works of artistic craftsmanship insofar as their form but not their mechanical or utilitarian aspects are concerned; the design of a useful article, as defined in this section, shall be considered a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work only if, and only to the extent that, such design incorporates pictorial, graphic, or sculptural features that can be identified separately from, and are capable of existing independently of, the utilitarian aspects of the article.18

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§ 106. Exclusive rights in copyrighted works38Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:

(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;

(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;

(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;

(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and

(6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

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