Quote:
Originally Posted by Soldim
That most certainly -- but that's because there's copyright laws that are independent of the contract you enter (or don't enter  ) with the book seller.
It would be interesting to see how such 'contracts' are considered if one buys a public domain book with a non-duplication clause and starts making copies. Then the validity of the 'contract' could be tested -- but I don't know any cases (most likely because defendants would certainly win  ). |
I think copyright law and contract law intersect more than you think.
Copyright law gives the author of the work a
property interest in the work. This is similar to, though not identical to, an interest in real property (land) or chattel (personal property). The holder of a copyright can certainly give others the right to copy a work, just as much as they can exclude people from doing so. Usually, they give some rights and exclude others via contract.
Consider the Lesser General Public License (LGPL). It's a licensee (contract) that allows anyone (including the purchaser) to copy and distribute the contents of a book published under the license. There's a book on GNU Awk (gawk) published by O'Reilly Media that's licensed under the LGPL.
Copyright law doesn't require that the copyright holder withhold permission to copy, it's just that is what most people do with it. Just like most people don't open their house to the public.