Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
(I tend to think this is a violation of the first sale doctrine, and would love to see a clever programming house figure out their own DRM method and start loaning out Macmillan ebooks, just to watch the sparks fly.)
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I actually spoke to an Intellectual Property lawyer about this. The difference between physical books and ebooks is that the very act of downloading an ebook means that you're making a new copy of the ebook. The first sale doctrine only applies the the original product: I can't, for example, go out and buy a physical book, make copies of it and pass around those copies. This is why the legality of lending ebooks is not as straightforward.