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Originally Posted by Parataxis
The thing that prevents publishers/sellers from restricting people from swapping or reselling their paperbacks is... the law. In Commonlaw jurisdictions, the first-sale doctrine allows the reselling of copyrighted works that have been previously purchased.
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First sale doctrine works because the information (the bits) are premanently fixed in form (i.e. printed, recorded) on something made up of atoms. This way, the bits can't be seperated from the atoms. So, having bought the atoms, you can transfer them to someone else. The bits naturally follow.
however, your right to the bits is limited eventhough you own the atoms. for instance, you can't photocopy the book (buying the paper and toner, thus owning the atoms) and sell your paper and toner you have assembled which now happens to contain the bits. This would violate copyright.
You do not gain a copyright when you purchase the atoms, you gain a single license to the bits to use in the fixed form.
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How the gov't is letting the e-publishers get away with violating this is beyond me. Instead of setting up DRM to prevent lending/selling/giving away, it would be much more in compliance with the doctrine if the DRM was set to ensure that if you did lend or sell your copy, you no longer had access to it - if the libraries can manage that, I don't see why the publishers cannot.
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In selling oly the bits, you are in fact making a copy. To transfer the work, you would make a new copy, then erase the first copy.
Looking to the first sale doctrine, when you buy a book, you do not get the right to photocopy the book, destroy the original then sell the photocopy. You can only sell the atoms; the license to the bits transfers with the atoms.
IANAL