In a case related to music, not ebooks, the
9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled
Quote:
that rapper Eminem’s production company was entitled to 50% of his record label’s revenue from digital sales.
The issue in F.B.T. Productions v. Aftermath Records was whether a digital download was a “sale” or a “license.” Like the music industry, publishers have taken the position that digital downloads should be accounted for as sales not licenses.
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The ruling is important for the recording industry, because recording artists (like book authors) receive 50% of the record company’s net receipts from rights licensed to third parties -- as opposed to 12% to 20% of the retail price.
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(Emphasis added) In this case, the seller's ability to reclaim/turn off the file was key to the decision that these were licenses, not sales.
This puts an interesting twist on ebook seller's claims (or rather, implications; they're pretty careful not to spell out the legal terms of the purchase) that they're selling licenses, not books... authors shouldn't be getting the 15-30% royalties for book sales, but the 50% rate for licensed material.