Quote:
Originally Posted by rlparker
This is the concept that I think has not been made clear to folks, or that they prefer not to accept: you don't "buy" e-books from Amazon, you "rent" them.
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I believe that is false, at least in the US. The courts have already ruled on this issue. If there is no expectation by the user that the content needs to be returned, then it is a sale. The only way that Amazon (or whoever) can legally get away with making it a "rental" or a "license" instead of a sale is if they make it clear upfront that your access is temporary and will expire after a specific time.
When you check out eBooks from a library, and they tell you that you only have access for X number of weeks until the DRM expires, then that is a rent/license. When you "buy" an eBook from Amazon with no mention of expiration or time limit on the DRM, then you own that copy of the eBook. Whatever Amazon wants to call it after wards is irrelevant.
Both the music and software industries have already tried that "sale vs license" argument in the courts, and have lost. With the software industry the case was specifically about the exact same argument of reselling DRM content, and they lost. The publishing industry is no different.