[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

Does anybody know anything about the legal status of selling some of my old, copy-protected, ebooks? I'd include the key and leave it up to the buyer to figure out how to read it. (I'd probably tell the buyer how *I* would handle it but leave the actual decision up to him/her.)

I haven't found any case law on this so either nobody's done it or the publishers haven't sued over it. Given how eager they've been to choke off the used book trade anyway I'm inclined to think nobody's done this yet-or at least not enough to attract attention.

How about it, does anybody know of any lawsuits brought over this-or of anybody doing it without attracting a lawsuit?

Thanks.

I am fairly certain that it is not been decided legal in any court or it would be highly publicized on mobileread at least.

I am sure many have done it on a limited basis without attracting attentio, but how would anyone find out if they have attracted no attention?

If it becomes legal, I would think the market would be flooded the very next day, making it hard to justify the time and effort spent by the seller. A few people would get a good price, but buyers and sellers would be seeing possibly thousands of copies of the same books for sale and would wait for the price to drop below a dollar. I know I would.

Then there would have to be some sort of policing system or unbreakable DRM to ensure all sales were of legal books.

If you are convinced that you have a moral and legal right to sell your books, and can do it without attracting attention, well we would all be curious to see how you make out.

Out of curiousity, What is the value of the books you want to sell and how would you go about it given the current legal status?

I am not a prospective buyer, I buy few books at present, use the library a lot and PD books, and maybe spend $20-$30 a month on books if that.

I would not uy a random selection of say 50 books at more than 10% of the original cost even if I was convinced the transaction was legal. I might pay more for a book I wanted, but would not buy it used unless tha transaction was declared 100% legal in a court of law in my country.

As I see itif it becomes legal, the market is saturated and if it is illegal, both the risk of prosecution and the time and effort to find buyers make it impractical. I am assumig you are selling only one copy of each book)

Personally, I would look at other ways to make my reading cheaper, such as library books, freebies, coupons and sales.

Helen