Since the ReDigi lawsuit surfaced a few days ago, some of the e-book blogs have been taking notice. EbookNewser simply asks “Could selling used e-books work?” (The answer is, probably about as well as ReDigi’s idea of selling used e-music. In the unlikely event courts bless it, then yes, we might very well see a used e-splosion. Wouldn’t hold my breath, though.) TeleRead has already looked at these issues a couple of times, with a reprint of a post on first sale by Marilynn Byerly and my own look at digital resale efforts that didn’t get off the...

The matter of first sale and imports I mentioned yesterday is not the only recent Ninth Circuit decision with unpleasant first-sale implications. Ars Technica reported yesterday that the Ninth Circuit ruled in a long-standing case concerning End-User Licensing Agreements on computer software—and from a consumer rights standpoint (and that includes e-book consumers), the ruling was not a good one. The case is Vernor vs. Autodesk, and until yesterday a lower court ruling had been cited as a potential precedent in favor of users being able to resell computer software they had purchased. The case involved a man, Timothy...

Nick Harkaway has posted on the Bookseller’s “FuturEBooks” blog wondering about the possibility of selling “second-hand e-books”. He points out (as I did in this TeleRead post on the idea) that, since there is no physical artifact to depreciate, an e-book couldn’t really be considered “used”, so either people would pass on the e-book for exactly the same price as they paid for it or else they’d drive down the value of the book by selling it at a discount. Harkaway then proposes the ideas of “returning” an e-book to the seller in return for store credit...