Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
Is it immoral to buy a used book?
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A used paper book? No, the author, publisher, etc. have already been paid for that copy. See First Sale Doctrine for more information.
A used ebook? Depends on the licensing. For the most part, I see boilerplate such as: "
By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen.. The nontransferable would prevent you from reselling or even gifting the ebook to someone else. It would be interesting to see how well this stands up in court.
I admit to finding the real humour in the "
No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without express written permission" portion of the usual boilerplate. At one time a few years back, I wrote to 6 publishers requesting permission to download an ebook to my computer, to store it on my mass storage device and to transfer it from the computer to my ereader. Evidently, no-one is supposed to read that text and actually request "express written permission". Admittedly, I've been told on several occasions, that my sense is humour is thoroughly warped.