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Referencing copyright law in the case of DRMed eBooks is sort of just muddying the water.
First of all, Nate is correct: Copyright law doesn't grant non-author rights - it takes them away. The purpose of copyright was to give authors a way to let their work be enjoyed by the public without unscrupulous people stealing the work. It does that by limiting the rights of the "owner" of the paper book.
Dennis is partially correct when he says:
"Copyright isn't taking rights away from you, because the rights covered weren't yours in the first place."
He's incorrect about the "Copyright isn't taking rights away from you" part. But he's correct about the "the rights covered weren't yours in the first place."
It isn't copyright that's the issue here. Its the fact that when you pay money for a DRMed eBook, you are not "buying" it - you are, in effect, renting it through a license agreement.
Copyright doesn't any bearing on this.
That's why DRM is so important to these publishers. It (very poorly) attempts to enforce the license agreement. The problem is that the people who paid money were led to believe that they purchased an eBook - just like they would have purchased a pBook - with all the purchaser rights thereof.
Going back to my good example: Spook Country. $26 at Fictionwise as a DRMed eBook. $16 at Amazon.com as a pBook.
Now, as an informed buyer, which has better value? The pBook, that costs less and can be resold when you are done reading it? Or the eBook, that costs more, and cannot be resold?
Taking that one step further. Which is a better value? Renting that eBook from Fictionwise for $26, or renting it from your local library for free?
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