Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
[SNIP]
I may have to try doing this: putting together a flash drive full of ebooks from Fictionwise that I'm done reading, deleting them from my hard drive, and selling them on eBay. Of course, I'd still have *access* to them on FW, but if I didn't actually re-download them, I wouldn't be making a copy I have no right to.
However, I suspect that many ebook publishers would not agree that this was reasonable, and believe that they have only licensed their books for use by one person--the purchaser--and that no additional transfers of the purchase are allowed. The RIAA's lawsuits used language that indicate they believe that proof of actual illegal copying is not necessary; availability of copying alone should be enough to prosecute. And since there's no way to prove "I didn't keep a copy somewhere," they would claim that of course any data that was transferred, was illegally copied.
[SNIP]
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Perhaps many eBook publishers would not agree that this was reasonable. A better approach might be to sell the entire Fictionwise account to the other party. Once they change the password, that would remove your ability to re-download the ebooks. What it
wouldn't do is remove your ability to read saved copies of any multi-format (
e.g. DRM-free) books you had purchased on that account.
Nevertheless, any reasonable publisher or retailer should be willing to let you sell the entire account and all the books you've bought with it to some other person. That comes close enough to the "transfer all copies" that is needed to match up with the physical world.
A
really enlightened publisher will go farther than that! The good folks at Baen have previously approved the following examples:
- Split a single Webscriptions account into two accounts due to a divorce. Both new accounts included all content purchased on the original account.
- Said that children who leave home (presumably at the age of legal majority) may freely take with them copies of all content purchased up to the time they left -- even though this brings into existance "un-paid-for" copies of those eBooks.
In both cases their analysis was that they'd prefer to keep a fan (and get their future purchases) rather than pissing off a loyal customer by trying to insist on payment for new copies of older works.
I note, however, that the folks in question had no legal right to these particular solutions. This is an example of excellent foresight and sound business practice on the part of the publisher, not a "this must be the legal approach" from a copyright PoV.
Xenophon