[LMB] Copyright (WAS: AKICOTL Usenet for a Dummy?)

[Mark Allums]

Elizabeth Holden wrote:
> --- "James M. BRYANT G4CLF" <james at jbryant.eu> wrote:
> 
>> The implied contract when you buy a book is that
>> you may read it as many times as you like, and
>> lend it to your friends (but not commercially).
> 
> You can resell it: that's commercial. I've yet to hear of any 
restrictions on selling books to
> second-hand bookstores or giving them to libraries.
> 
> I think people have, with our new technology, become very squeamish about what they can and cannot
> do.  In the particular circle of this list, I see a lot of people buying extra copies, getting
> copies in different media (i.e., ebooks, audio-books, hardcovers, paperbacks) and getting the
> books as gifts for friends, I don't think we have to suffer bad consciences in this regard.


There is a convention called the "First sale doctrine" that physical 
books are the property of the buyer/owner.  Thus, they may be sold, 
given or traded, and lent---but not copied.

Ebooks are the same in law, but only when the ebook is transferred in 
such a way that the original can no longer be read or used by the first 
owner.  Thus, the controversy, because there is no way to do that. I 
suppose you could sell, trade, give, or lend your ebook reader and/or 
computer.

-- 
Mark Allums