Secondhand ebooks?

[carpetmojo]

But ............ I believe you can load most boks to up to 6 devices, at least in UK.

If an "extra" devices belong to you, that's fair, but if you then lend that to a third party ( say, to a cash-strapped child of the household ) I presume that would be OK ? Or a greyish area ?

If the said loanee then pretended to be you, and, I don't know, gave it to someone else, I should think that might create some earnings possibilities for the lawyers (!) but otherwise it is certainly no different to lending someone a physbook to read, as far as I can see - or am being obtuse here ?

I'm not endorsing or proposing anyone does this, but I do keep a great majority of my library on a couple of readers - like on my 350 for travel/waiting rooms etc..... and have "swapped" devices with family on holiday .....

[Rob Lister]

I don't think the issue is transferring to another owner, the issue is the necessity of circumventing the DRM to accommodate that transfer. That's where the legal issue comes in.

Form one source: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 states that "no person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under [copyright law]."

And that's exactly what you'd have to do to transfer it unless your license distributor (Amazon, B&N, etc.) otherwise accommodates you.

I know there are previous court cases that upheld this statute. I think there are recent court cases undermine it a bit in certain circumstances (i.e. jailbreaking).

Regardless, the current legal standing is clear: illegal.

[applesauce]

When I got my kindle I was given books from 2 people. I know they deleted them when they gave them to me. They wanted to clean up their ereaders. I even owned ever single book they gave me as a print version, I was just unable to read them due to vision problems. So in my eyes the author was still paid, no copy was kept so I will just live with it being illegal . All the house hold kindles and my sisters ereader are on my amazon account so share stuff between them.

I draw the line at making copies and sharing them. Giving them away I have zero problem with people doing it. I would turn a blind eye to it I am not sure how much of my stuff I would part with tho I am a bit of a collector. I like all my authors and collections complete. Okay the shades of grey books I could give those away and disinfect my kindle. Now that would put a smile on my face, dreadful books.

applesauce

[crossi]

Someone saiid that the trouble with transfering a license is that the origional licensee might not delete his copy. That is true but devices have limited lifespans. Once the origional owner's reader died and he no longer had the license it wouldn't matter if he still hadf a copy. He wouldn't have anything capable of reading it. Also many people clain to never reread. Who cares if someone has a copy of a ebook they're never going to read again. And if they never plan to read it again why would they even bother with keeping a copy.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

My sister recently got herself an iPad and she is going gaga over it right now. I showed her how to install the Kindle app and how to buy books online. I have some 100 finished Kindle books and I know she would enjoy some 30 or 40 of those, but I can't legally give them to her. That just doesn't make sense.

You can legally share the ebooks with her if she registers her Kindle app to your account and downloads the ebooks to her iPad.

[plib]

Originally Posted by HarryT

As Jon rightly says, the issue is that you still have the book available to you from the store you bought it from, and most stores don't provide a method of deleting it.

If I go to "Manage My Kindle" on Amazon, one of the choices is "Delete from library". At Kobo one of the choices in "My Library" is "Delete". Smashwords has a "Remove from library" option. That takes care of the only stores I have accounts at, and are three major book retailers. Maybe Sony, B&N are different but I can certainly delete anything I've acquired and choose to give away.

[EowynCarter]

Illegal yes, immoral, I guess not.

Being able to resell would mean a system to transfer right, make sure the original owner don't have a copy. Just a pain...
I'll rather have not resealable DRM free book.

[plib]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

I don't think the issue is transferring to another owner, the issue is the necessity of circumventing the DRM to accommodate that transfer. That's where the legal issue comes in.

Form one source: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 states that "no person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under [copyright law]."

And that's exactly what you'd have to do to transfer it unless your license distributor (Amazon, B&N, etc.) otherwise accommodates you.

I know there are previous court cases that upheld this statute. I think there are recent court cases undermine it a bit in certain circumstances (i.e. jailbreaking).

Regardless, the current legal standing is clear: illegal.

DMCA only applies in the US, which probably applies to the OP, but there is a whole wide world where it doesn't. Given recent developments regarding game software in the EU it seems likely that passing on books may well become legal there also.

Practically speaking, given how simple it is to remove DRM and the scale of one person giving away, or even selling, a book they've read and no longer want I think the chances of any legal consequences are minute. Unless, of course, the publishers want the same sterling reputation the RIAA has.

[HarryT]

What recent developments regarding game software are you referring to?

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Synamon

You can legally share the ebooks with her if she registers her Kindle app to your account and downloads the ebooks to her iPad.

I know that, but then she can also start to purchase books with my gift cards, and although I love my sister I don't trust her when her local crack dealer comes around.

[plib]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What recent developments regarding game software are you referring to?

Here you go. I've done the heavy lifting for you.

[HarryT]

That appears to be referring to the EUJ's recent ruling in a case involving the resale of Oracle licences. I'm not sure why the articles you've kindly provided a reference to are talking about games.

[plib]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That appears to be referring to the EUJ's recent ruling in a case involving the resale of Oracle licences. I'm not sure why the articles you've kindly provided a reference to are talking about games.

Because playing with Oracle licenses isn't such a popular consumer pastime, but gaming is? The ruling would seem to apply to both. If the EU courts follow the same logic then there's no reason it shouldn't apply to books also.

[Belfaborac]

As far as I can see, the link references the EU Court of Justice's recent ruling that software programs, whether games or otherwise, can be legally re-sold. From there' it's only a short hop, skip or jump to e-books.

[HarryT]

I'd take those articles with a pinch of salt. It's not at all clear to me that the ECJ's ruling has as widespread applicability as they are suggesting. Time will tell.