Quote:
Originally Posted by Fastolfe
What a crock. It's the same BS software makers have been trying to implant into people's heads since the seventies - that you don't "own" your copy of the book/software/computer file, you have it on lease.
It's quite simple really: either you own something, in which case your right to use it, store it, lend it and resell it is inalienable, or you don't and the loan you have is revokable by the rightful owner.
I think it's pretty clear that, once you bought an ebook, or a piece of software, it's inacceptable that a third party can deprive you of what you bought unilaterally. If you don't accept this, then you obviously demand to own the ebook/software.
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Depends on the terms of sale. US courts have ruled that, if there's no expectation of return, it's a sale.
When you rent a video from a store, it's licensed; you paid with the stated agreement that you'd return the object in a given amount of time. When you subscribe to World of Warcraft site, you're licensing use of the software (the stuff on their servers, not the disc you use to set up your computer); if you stop paying, you stop getting access. When you borrow an ebook from a library through Overdrive, it's understood that it'll stop working in two weeks. Those are licenses.
When you buy an ebook from Fictionwise, there's no expectation that you'll lose access to it. They may not make it downloadable forever, but once you've got it on your hard drive, you get to keep it. That's a sale, not a licensed use.
However, there've been some
legal arguments the other direction--and if ebooks sold by Amazon are legally "licensed," the publishers & stores may be taking a hit: Licensed uses traditionally have a 50% royalty rate, instead of the 10-20% sales rate.
Pro authors going through major publishers should check their contracts for "license" royalties.