Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great
Conclusion: I started this thread because I wanted to learn about the legal details of ownership versus copyright. I did not learn anything here. I'm going to go analyze the user agreements from the various ebook content providers. I will then post summaries here of exactly what you agree to, such as which one sells you a license and which one sells you ownership.
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You got me thinking. So I decided to head over to eReader.com and pretend that I am an eBook newbie.
All the wording that I see is the same as Amazon.com. I see terms like "Price", "Sale price", "Add to cart", "Go to checkout", etc.
Clicking on a book that seem interesting, I proceed to the checkout. I stop just short of actually confirming the purchase. But I see no license agreement anywhere.
Everything that I see says that my eBook purchase is no different from a pBook purchase on Amazon.com.
So I step back and see what I can find on what I can/cannot do with my eBooks. The only topic that I can see that's applicable is "Help." Going through the help, I see little about restrictions.
Buried in the Help is this:
"Without eReader, you will not be able to read eReader eBooks, and other eBook Readers will not work with eReader.com eBooks. eReader.com eBooks are encrypted to protect the authors' work."
Later on, they explain that you need their permission to access your eBooks when you change your credit card.
They do cover printing though: "No, eBooks on eReader.com are not printable."
However, they
do say this:
"For the first time, it's now possible to build up your own library of your favorite books that won't ever age or deteriorate!"
Which seems to be contradictory with the other statements in the Help.
But the main problem is this: Nowhere does it say that you cannot re-sell the eBook you "purchase". I cannot find any license anywhere. Everything I see says that I "purchased" an eBook. Yet, with DRM, I have no first sale rights. I obviously have no rights beyond being able to download and read the eBook on approved devices.
I'm not a lawyer, but this reeks of "fraud" to me.