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Originally Posted by speakingtohe
Just curious about how something has to expire to be a license. I looked up afew definitions and cannot find in commonly used dictionaries, wikipedia etc. that a license has to expire, or even that it usually expires
Helen
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Vernor V Autodesk drew on US v Wise "which directly addressed the classification of sales and licenses for the purposes of first sale with respect to film prints, the court found that the crucial factor was whether the transaction gave rise to a right of perpetual possession in the transferee. If the transferee was entitled to keep the copy acquired from the copyright holder, it was a sale. If the transferee was required to return the copy, it was not a sale."
It's not a part of the definition of a "license" in dictionaries; it's part of the body of legal doctrines relevant to determining what a license is. And it's not definitive--"you keep it forever" isn't the single factor that decides if an exchange was a sale or a license. It's just the factor that decides when other details are lacking, or when the "license" argument is not strongly supported.
There are perpetual licenses... with ongoing payment requirements, or other continued interaction between buyer and seller. But calling a sale a "license" doesn't make it legally true. (I'm not saying that ebooks aren't licensed; just saying that publishers' wishes aren't what would make that happen. Publishers tried to limit the resale of pbooks, too; that's how we got the first sale doctrine: they printed books that said "this book must not be resold for less than $1" and insisted their copyrights had been violated when they were sold used.)
Amazon (and other bookstores) using words like "Buy This Ebook" will not work in their favor when they claim to be selling licenses, not books. Especially for those sites that sell print and ebooks with the same software and same buttons. Saying "but we said some of those purchases are licenses... in another spot on the site, in a 6-pt light grey font, buried in the middle of 4500 words of EULA" is not a good foundation for a court case. There is *nothing* in the buying process that indicates the ebooks are sold under different conditions than the pbooks.