Dutch judge allows sale of used ebooks

[Tarana]

The only books I would be willing to give up are those so bad I wouldn't want to reread them and if they are so bad it might well be that not many people would buy them once word gets around.

You are assuming that most people who buy ebooks are rereaders. We actually had a poll here a while back and as I recall, more than half of people either did not reread or only had a few keeper books. There's a reason why a LOT of people use the library!

As for reselling, that's a big nonconcern. Paperbacks that sold new for $8, sell for $1 or even less at used book stores, even for really popular authors/books. You just won't get the money you think you should. Even hardcovers you bought for $23 sell for only $2-4 used unless the author signed it (and even that may not increase the value). Textbooks are really where buyer/seller come together because the buyer is required to have the textbook within a specified amount of time.

edited to add: In other words, used books only benefit the buyer, not the seller, whether deadtree or ebook.

Where I see an issue for transferring ownership is cases where the owner of the ebook dies and the family wants access to the ebooks/audiobooks. Amazon DID do that at one time for me, but apparently no longer does.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I understand, but when I post the book at two or three different stores at once, they won't know if it's sold already in one of the others. I could sell it once at each store; until someone finds out of course.

I can't say for sure, but there is only one company that applies watermarks in the Netherlands, so the watermarking that is applied during the resale would likely be processed by them regardless of the number of stores that would resale ebooks.