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Originally Posted by Nate the great
Here you used license to mean "rights under the law".
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That is correct. That is what I mean by the word. I get the impression, though, that you mean something a little different?
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See what Rlauzon said above; that's how I was thinking. I see a license (in this discussion) as an agreement between the seller and buyer where the seller gives the buyer permission to do certain things with the seller's property.
I started this discussion in order to ask some questions; when you buy an ebook, are you paying for ownership or a license? Why do so many people assume that it is a license? What legal basis exists to support the assumption?
Some people here automatically assume that you buy a license, not ownership. I disagree.
When I buy a pbook, I own the pbook. Similarly, when I buy an ebook, I expect to own the ebook. If I don't own it, then I don't buy it.
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As has been said numerous times, Nate, when you buy a paper book, you own the physical media - the paper, ink, glue, covers, etc. You do
not own the book's contents; the ownership of those remains with the copyright holder.
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I really want to learn what the law says. I suspect that there is no law to support the assumption that the buyer is purchasing a license, not ownership.
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The law specifies some restrictions on your rights (which is what I mean by a licence); eg the law says that you can't resell the contents of the book, whether it's a paper book or an e-Book. When you buy an e-Book, the seller can impose some additional restrictions on you, if it's a DRM'd book. Eg, if you buy a DRM-protected MobiPocket book, you can't print it (you can if it doesn't have DRM). These are nothing to do with the law - if you wish to call that a "licence", it's fine by me. If you go to a site like "Fictionwise", you'll find that the site specifies what restrictions are imposed by what formats.