Quote:
Originally Posted by dadioflex
Or, to rephrase what you said, you shouldn't necessarily expect the rules to be different either, so by that reasoning the rules on buying and selling second hand ebooks are too far in favour of the vendors and not far enough yet in favour of the customer.
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That may be... but again, since no one is forced to buy, I wouldn't say the rules favor the vendors overly. After all, they have to keep you from walking away.
The laws concerning second-hand physical books clearly favor the customer: You can freely and legally trade or resell the books you've bought, fifty seconds or fifty years after the sale, and the writers and publishers never see another dime from transactions beyond the first sale. Obviously, publishers hate this, but do not have the resources to fight it (though it could be said that the slow elimination of used bookstores by the big box bookstores is a way to limit second-sale opportunities, and win the battle in the long run).
The laws in the case of most electronic media clearly favor the vendors: They have control, through DRM, in whether or not your ability use access their software is transferable to others after the initial sale. That, in itself, isn't a bad thing... but if consumers feel they are being taken unfair advantage of, they will fight the system until they feel satisfied they are getting a fair deal.
E-books are something between software apps and physical entertainment products: They may be delivered by software, but the content is created and owned independently of the software delivery method, and IMO, should be able to be legally divorced from the delivery method once the consumer has purchased it.
This is why I say e-books and other digital publications need their own laws to govern their use and better define fair consumer options... because at the moment, they are being improperly defined by other products to which they share only a superficial resemblance.
This is important: New laws specific to electronic publications may not mean the consumer will ultimately be free to do whatever they want... but as I said, if future laws are perceived as fair to both sides, consumers will be satisfied with a limited set of rights to the product, vendors will be satisfied they are being properly protected from loss, and (most) everybody will be happy.