EU vice-president: Copyright legislation is “pushing people to steal”

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

We're sure of this how? Not saying I necessarily doubt it, but is that based on some kind of info somewhere?



Every deal I've read about with a traditional publisher has included advances in each market/contract area.

Comments that I've read over the years by various authors when asked about foreign sales. Of course, one has to consider that few books have particularly big sales figures to begin with.

[GERGE]

I go around the geographic blocks, If a company cancels my account, I will quietly accept that, otherwise there is nothing illegal with what I do. We discussed this extensively here, there is no reason to repeat the legal talks again.

Use search feature of the forum.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Unless you're arguing in favour of price fixing, then yes, of course it should be allowed.

But shouldn't people in Spain be able to buy the (cheaper) ebook from the UK store under single market regulations?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

But shouldn't people in Spain be able to buy the (cheaper) ebook from the UK store under single market regulations?

Amazon UK only sell ebooks to people in the UK. Amazon employ sufficient lawyers to ensure that this is not illegal, I'd guess. Penguin are of course free to set different prices in different national bookstores. This happens all the time.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

But shouldn't people in Spain be able to buy the (cheaper) ebook from the UK store under single market regulations?

I used to be able to do that. Now uk shop are closed to us. It was a major pain back then, there was no way to get the english versions of books, the US shops being closed to us as well. I bypassed the geo-restiction rather than pirate, but still..

Kobo finally fixed that. Amazon came later. It was a blessing not having to lie about where i'm living anymore

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Amazon UK only sell ebooks to people in the UK. Amazon employ sufficient lawyers to ensure that this is not illegal, I'd guess. Penguin are of course free to set different prices in different national bookstores. This happens all the time.

And EU citizens are free to buy from any bookstore in the EU.

The problem is that EU citizens are not currently able to buy from any ebookstore in the EU.

Whether this is currently legal or illegal, it seems to me that it's clearly against the spirit of the EU. And that the EU lawmakers should be working to make it illegal. One way would be to state that anyone authorised to sell ebooks in one EU state thereby also has permission to sell to anyone in any other EU state. Legislation can and often does override contract terms.

[ingmar]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Changing copyright law would have absolutely no impact on such contracts.

Actually, it easily could. "If this product is not legally available in your market, feel free to help yourself to a private copy." Sensible copyright regimes already do this for, say, out-of-print books and other orphaned works. Of course this would need balls the size of which no current government possesses.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by ingmar

Actually, it easily could. "If this product is not legally available in your market, feel free to help yourself to a private copy." Sensible copyright regimes already do this for, say, out-of-print books and other orphaned works. Of course this would need balls the size of which no current government possesses.

Ooh! And let's makes sure that same rule applies evenly and fairly! To confidential police records! Child pornograhy! And since it's moral and sensible, how about apply it to drugs! And weapons! And slaves!

Sometimes I wish we could give negative karma to a post.

[eschwartz]

@ingmar,

It remains a right of the rights-holder to deny anyone the right to buy a product. Your rule would take away that right as well.
As well as lots and lot of other things that no one whatsoever is legally allowed to possess.


It makes far more sense to make georestrictions legally unenforceable.

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

It remains a right of the rights-holder to deny anyone the right to buy a product. Your rule would take away that right as well.
As well as lots and lot of other things that no one whatsoever is legally allowed to possess.

Well, no they don't have that right. There are statutory licenses for many IP "things" that the rights holder are not allowed to deny. Music is the big one that comes to mind.

Even when we're not talking statutory licenses, the rights holder is not allowed to say that you aren't allowed to buy their product. The author of a book cannot tell you that you're not allowed to buy it when you are in the book store.

It's only for these "download things" that they think they have that right.

Greg

[eschwartz]

Actually, an author (or publisher, if they have purchased the rights which they usually have) is perfectly capable and entitled to pull their book off the market. There is no statutory license or any other legal construct that mandates a rights-holder to offer their book for sale in the public marketplace, not even if they have previously done so willingly.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by gweeks

Even when we're not talking statutory licenses, the rights holder is not allowed to say that you aren't allowed to buy their product.

Actually, one extremely important right that copyright law gives an author is the right NOT to publish. If you write a private diary, copyright is what gives you the right to keep it private. A rights holder absolutely does have the right to say "this is not for sale".

[shalym]

Yes. An author is allowed to stop offering their book for sale. What they are NOT allowed to do is say "I will sell my book to this person, but not to THAT person".

Shari

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Actually, one extremely important right that copyright law gives an author is the right NOT to publish. If you write a private diary, copyright is what gives you the right to keep it private. A rights holder absolutely does have the right to say "this is not for sale".

Indeed but should an Irish author be able to allow sales in the Irish Republic but not in the UK ?

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by shalym

Yes. An author is allowed to stop offering their book for sale. What they are NOT allowed to do is say "I will sell my book to this person, but not to THAT person".

Yes.

Nor are they allowed to say "You may not buy this any more." Any copies already out there can be resold. That doesn't mean you can make another copy and sell it. This is why used book stores can still sell books even after they are no longer being printed.

The whole ebooks are a license and not a book messes with this, but there is no requirement that the law interpret it that way. Congress can say a book is a book is a book and ebooks become just another book that can be resold. I don't think it's likely, but there's nothing in the law that stops it. The current law hasn't been well tested yet either.

Greg