Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
However, to counter your cogent summary, I would argue that any sale must, by its very nature, involve making an unauthorised copy, and hence be a violation of copyright law.
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Not necessarily.
I buy from Fictionwise; I normally download the files to a flash drive because I generally borrow someone else's computer. (I can download them on my home computer at dialup speeds, but that's not my preference.)
I take the flash drive home, copy contents onto my hard drive & ebook reader. Legit, authorized copies. I decide to sell my ebooks. I delete the copies on my hard drive & ebook reader, and sell the flash drive, with contents, to someone else.
This involves attaching the digital content to a physical medium, which shouldn't be required to resell a purchase, but does neatly sidestep the problem of "making a copy" in order to sell the content.
Someone else now owns a legit collection of ebooks, which they can copy according to whatever laws govern copies-of-digital-purchases, which are a *mess*, but that's not the point. Whether Someone Else gives me back the flash drive afterward is irrelevant--they bought the ebooks legally, with no unauthorized copies being made.
I could, hypothetically, still download those books from Fictionwise--if they're still available. FW doesn't promise to keep them available. I have no idea if FW will remove books from a library by request; I'm *certain* they won't transfer them to someone else. So I could, reasonably (which is not the same as "legally," which is fuzzy here) keep access to those downloads for the sole purpose of transferring them to the new owner of those ebooks, for as long as FW keeps them available.
However, whether I have access to them or not, if I don't re-download them, I haven't made any unauthorized copies. If "access to copies" is a violation of copyright law, every owner of a home copy/print/scanner is a criminal.
FW's, Smashwords' and Amazon's claims that digital purchases are not transferable is not supported by US law. (And I'm told, not by UK law, but I'm less aware of precedents there.) Reselling may be a violation of contract, and for that, the company may close the buyer's account, but I don't think there's grounds to sue for damages; no damage has been done to the seller.