Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks
Forget the "Publishers think You are a Thief" is a new thought. They always thought that every time you gave a book away.
They NOW have a way to stop you from doing all those (formerly) Legal things and enforce a "Non-Transferable License" legally.
I am truly surprised that "Single read" was not implemented (once you reach the last page, the book is no longer authorized) by the Publishers. Maybe next year  |
Over a 100 years ago (1908), a publisher, Bobbs-Merrill, sold a copyrighted novel with the notice, "The price of this book at retail is $1 net. No dealer is licensed to sell it at a lower price, and a sale at a lower price will be treated as an infringement of the copyright." They claimed the book was merely licensed, not sold.
A department store, R.H. Macy & Co., bought wholesale and sold copies for 89 cents. Bobbs-Merrill sued. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court and the result was the "first sale doctrine" - that the seller could sell for any price he wanted, but after that "first sale," it had no right to control the book thereafter. That decision allowed bookstores to sell used books without asking for permission from the publisher. It allowed the purchaser of a book to to give it away or resell it later. If the case had gone the other way, used bookstores would not have been able to operate, we could not give our books to our friends, etc.
This is still the law in the U.S. (similar rules apply in most countries), but for ebooks, at least in the U.S., they have finally gotten around this, not by changing the first sale doctrine, but by passing a law that says it's illegal to bypass technical restrictions on copying (DRM). We have the legal right to resell the book, or give it to a friend, or let a used book store resell it, so long as we don't try to actually use that right.