Dutch Court Shutters Ebook Resale Site…For Now

[Lin2412]

The Dream of Used eBooks is Over...for Tom Kabinet.

A Dutch Court of Appeals has ruled that Tom Kabinet must shut down within three days or pay a daily fine of €1,000.

Tom Kabinet is a Netherlands based used e-Book website that was first established during the summer of 2014. Their launch immediately put them at odds with the Dutch Publishing Association. The publishers believe Tom Kabinet infringes on copyrights. Research suggests 90% of all eBooks that are listed on the site are pirated and that criminals are reselling books they download from torrent websites.

(Original article from Michael Kozlowski, Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader

While the very idea of reselling ebooks is not new, Tom Kabinet has tried to circumvent at least one objection to reselling ebooks: the platform promises to pay publishers and authors a form of royalty through its “Friends of Tom” program. We will have to wait and see if this works.

(Original article from Edward Nawotka, Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives)

[Zetmolm]

Well, it's not as black and white as this.

The judge has ruled that in principle used ebooks can be resold, but indeed the problem with Tom Kabinet was that there were too many illegal ebooks offered on their site. The 90% that is mentioned is just a wild guess, and not the outcome of 'research'.

Tom Kabinet is now removing all books where they do not have proof that they are legal copies, i.e. 12,000 out of 17,000 titles, and they expect that is enough to be allowed to stay in business.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by Zetmolm

Well, it's not as black and white as this.

The judge has ruled that in principle used ebooks can be resold, but indeed the problem with Tom Kabinet was that there were too many illegal ebooks offered on their site. The 90% that is mentioned is just a wild guess, and not the outcome of 'research'.

Tom Kabinet is now removing all books where they do not have proof that they are legal copies, i.e. 12,000 out of 17,000 titles, and they expect that is enough to be allowed to stay in business.

Hooray!

[Tarana]

Tom Kabinet is now removing all books where they do not have proof that they are legal copies, i.e. 12,000 out of 17,000 titles, and they expect that is enough to be allowed to stay in business.

It's unfortunate he didn't plan this from the start. Would have raised less bru ha ha.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Zetmolm

Well, it's not as black and white as this.

The judge has ruled that in principle used ebooks can be resold, but indeed the problem with Tom Kabinet was that there were too many illegal ebooks offered on their site. The 90% that is mentioned is just a wild guess, and not the outcome of 'research'.

Tom Kabinet is now removing all books where they do not have proof that they are legal copies, i.e. 12,000 out of 17,000 titles, and they expect that is enough to be allowed to stay in business.

I would expect that they would need solid proof that all books are legal to return/stay in business.

Who know though.

Helen