Quote:
Originally Posted by jusmee
More seriously, because of the way in which all books are produced, I believe you purchase one COPY of a book, physical or digital, and as long as you never cause 2 copies to be in use at the same time, that seems fair. Of course - legal does not always equal fair.
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Fair and reasonable has very little to do with the law, and even less with copyright law.
The law addresses copies and public performance, not "reasonable use of purchased materials." The court's ruled that, while making a copy for time-shifting and format-shifting for personal use is legal (Universal v Sony), making a copy for the purpose of transferring ownership is not. You can apparently only transfer ownership of the original download, which requires transferring the hardware along with it.
Not addressed: what counts as the "original download." Very first download only? Or any legitimate download from the purchase site? If your first download is to a script that says "send this in an email to me"--accessible through many devices--is it legit to sell any piece of hardware that houses that email?
(Rhetorical questions not likely to be addressed by a court anytime soon. Expect the next lawsuit to be over some enterprising person selling cheap flash drives with 10 books each on them, either already-read and sold at a discount, or temporary freebies gathered while the sale is on, and later sold.)