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Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Sorry, but I simply refuse to believe publishers are sitting in their offices saying, "We should make sure no one has fair use of their purchases."
What they ARE saying is, "We must prevent theft. If we do not, we'll go out of business."
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They are also saying, "of course people can't resell ebooks. We don't need to make it possible for them to do so, short of selling the device the book is installed on."
They don't consider first sale rights to actually be a legal right. Nor do they consider fair use to be something they're obligated to allow; they think of it as something they're not allowed to prevent. There's a big difference in legal considerations between those approaches.
I like Boyle's comparison of free use to easements in physical property. They're not just something that's permitted; they're something that's actively supported by law, to the extent that property owners are required not only to allow use of them, but to make them accessible.
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THAT'S what publishers want to hear. Threatening them with the darknet doesn't help.
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Yep.
Threaten them with COMPETITION.
I'm not buying new sci-fi books from Random House... but I am buying them from Baen. Not buying new ebooks from Laurell Hamilton, but I've stocked up on short stories from the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust at Fictionwise. Not buying from BooksOnBoard, but I'm buying from Smashwords.
There's no point in telling publishers how you're going to "punish" them for not providing what you want. Tell them where those dollars are going instead.