Comments on: Library advocates, used merchandise vendors lobby for digital ownership rights http://www.teleread.com/copy-right/library-advocates-used-merchandise-vendors-lobby-for-digital-ownership-rights/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Sat, 18 May 2013 17:51:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Frank Lowney http://www.teleread.com/copy-right/library-advocates-used-merchandise-vendors-lobby-for-digital-ownership-rights/comment-page-1/#comment-1219939 Frank Lowney Wed, 14 Nov 2012 23:14:46 +0000 http://www.teleread.com/?p=74512#comment-1219939 As long as consumers agree to those (click through) licenses, they have no property claims. However, legislation might someday come to pass that compels those who purvey digital goods to make those license terms more clear to the average person. In the case of eBooks, it might become mandatory to say "lease this book" or "rent this book" instead of "buy this book." That might lead to all sorts of things, not the least of which would be the expectation of lower prices. Or, it could lead to some vendors not requiring a license to augment copyright law already in place. Then, we'd be faced with the problem of how to protect the property rights of consumers who buy digital goods and balance that with the rights of those who have been granted a time-limited monopoly on producing copies of a given work. Sounds like a great Supreme Court type issue to me. As long as consumers agree to those (click through) licenses, they have no property claims. However, legislation might someday come to pass that compels those who purvey digital goods to make those license terms more clear to the average person. In the case of eBooks, it might become mandatory to say “lease this book” or “rent this book” instead of “buy this book.” That might lead to all sorts of things, not the least of which would be the expectation of lower prices. Or, it could lead to some vendors not requiring a license to augment copyright law already in place. Then, we’d be faced with the problem of how to protect the property rights of consumers who buy digital goods and balance that with the rights of those who have been granted a time-limited monopoly on producing copies of a given work. Sounds like a great Supreme Court type issue to me.

]]> By: Karl Fields http://www.teleread.com/copy-right/library-advocates-used-merchandise-vendors-lobby-for-digital-ownership-rights/comment-page-1/#comment-1219911 Karl Fields Wed, 14 Nov 2012 18:11:56 +0000 http://www.teleread.com/?p=74512#comment-1219911 "...movie rental firm Redbook" Did you mean Redbox? “…movie rental firm Redbook”

Did you mean Redbox?

]]> By: Marilynn Byerly http://www.teleread.com/copy-right/library-advocates-used-merchandise-vendors-lobby-for-digital-ownership-rights/comment-page-1/#comment-1219898 Marilynn Byerly Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:31:24 +0000 http://www.teleread.com/?p=74512#comment-1219898 The only person who owns a digital book is the copyright owner. According to all the contracts among them, the publisher leases it from the copyright owner, the book distributor leases distribution rights from the publisher, and the buyer leases it from the distributor. How, then, can the buyer circumvent all those lease agreements and take away the copyright? Right now, copyright owners are fighting to prevent resales from illegal sites which claim to have distribution contracts but don't and all those pirate sites which are making tons of money from offering "free" copyrighted books. Frankly, fighting those who offer ebook "resales" already is tough enough because we have obvious proof on our side that we are copyright owners. If that is taken away from us, the only people making money from copyright won't be the authors or the publishers, and that's the end of publishing and writing for income for all of us. As to eBay wanting this to pass, I'm not surprised. eBay is one of the biggest pirate enabling sites right now. Sellers of copyrighted ebooks which they copy in the thousands on CDs are given free rein, and eBay makes it nearly impossible to stop these people. They and their company PayPal have just added a new TOS stipulation that they can't be sued in a class-action lawsuit which would be the only way poor writers, and most of us are poor, to stop this egregious behavior. The only person who owns a digital book is the copyright owner. According to all the contracts among them, the publisher leases it from the copyright owner, the book distributor leases distribution rights from the publisher, and the buyer leases it from the distributor. How, then, can the buyer circumvent all those lease agreements and take away the copyright?

Right now, copyright owners are fighting to prevent resales from illegal sites which claim to have distribution contracts but don’t and all those pirate sites which are making tons of money from offering “free” copyrighted books. Frankly, fighting those who offer ebook “resales” already is tough enough because we have obvious proof on our side that we are copyright owners.

If that is taken away from us, the only people making money from copyright won’t be the authors or the publishers, and that’s the end of publishing and writing for income for all of us.

As to eBay wanting this to pass, I’m not surprised. eBay is one of the biggest pirate enabling sites right now. Sellers of copyrighted ebooks which they copy in the thousands on CDs are given free rein, and eBay makes it nearly impossible to stop these people.

They and their company PayPal have just added a new TOS stipulation that they can’t be sued in a class-action lawsuit which would be the only way poor writers, and most of us are poor, to stop this egregious behavior.

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