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Originally Posted by HarryT
If your contract with the bookstore from which you bought the books stated that they were non-transferrable, you would be in breach of contract, and could be prosecuted.
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If the contract itself were legal. If the contract is based on flawed interpretations of the law, it's not enforceable. If the books were sold in the first place, not licensed, it's not illegal to re-sell them or give them away. Just because the ebookstore claims they were licensing them doesn't make it true.
Just like copyright statements in the front of many books:
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.
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It's false. You *can* legally reproduce parts of the book without permission. Can quote it for reviews, can use it for analysis or research, can make lists of the contents and characters, and so on. Just because they've declared a set of rights doesn't actually grant them, and buying a book doesn't bind purchasers to never copy any fragments of it without getting written consent from the author.
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If you retained copies on your own PC, or under your account at the bookstore, you'd be breaking copyright law.
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If you sell your house, it's not illegal to keep a copy of the key. It's illegal to *use* it after you've sold the house, but having potential access is not the same as violating the property rights of the new owners.
If bookstores won't remove access to the books, that doesn't make transfer of them illegal. Accessing them after the transfer is a violation of copyright law, but having them available for access is no more a violation than owning a photocopy machine.