Amazon, Publishers File for Dismissal in Bookseller's Lawsuit (The Digital Reader) Class Action eBook Royalty Lawsuit Against Harlequin Books Dismissed (Digital Book World) Goodreads Acquisition Presents Opportunity for Library Thing (The Digital Shift) We're Not Done with First Sale (Scholarly Communications) Kindle Daily Deals: Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke (and 3 others)  ...

Yesterday, TeleRead published two thoughtful essays on the digital reselling issue (here, and here) from author Marilynn Byerly. I appreciate her desire to ensure that any used digital market is fair to authors. I don't, however, think Amazon is—as she asserts—about to 'break the law.' Why not? Because while many have tried to interpret the current law to the best of their ability, it hasn't been definitely established by a precedent-establishing case whether or not digital goods are subject to the first sale doctrine. But this is not a bad thing—it means a healthy discussion and debate can still occur, and...

Digital products like e-books are licensed—not sold—to a buyer, so they can’t be legally resold, shared, or loaned. (See my article on e-books and the first sale doctrine for more information.) A group called the Owners' Rights Initiative wants to change that. The ORI believes that the owner of a digital book should be allowed to sell it used.  Members of this group include some library trade groups, used resellers of paper books, and eBay. Some readers consider this a good thing, because they can get cash back on books they've read, in the very same way many readers do with paper books. But...

Amazon has patented a means to sell used e-books within the Kindle system. A book will be branded within the system when it is bought, and when the buyer puts it up for resale at the Kindle store, it will be removed from his account and transferred to the buyer’s account. Amazon will receive a small fee for each sale. A limited number of sales of each book may or may not be included in the system. According to copyright law, specifically the first sale doctrine, this is illegal because digital goods aren’t physical things so they can’t be resold. (See...