Would you be more likely to buy DRMed Kindle books if you could legally resell ‘em—in an Amazon marketplace, perhaps with the publishers even getting a cut?
We’ve brought up resale rights before, in posts like this one from Chris Meadows, and now Slashgear is discussing the issue.
Technorati Tags: resale rights
DRM has nothing to do with reselling books. Although I don’t use DRM on my books (except where, as with Amazon, DRM is applied by the distributor), but you still can’t resell them. I avoid DRM because of its costs, both to me and to the customer who is inconvenienced and may be locked to a particular format and corporation.
In my opinion, the entire book resale world gives almost nothing to the first purchaser, creates profits for big companies who don’t have to invest much to do it, and, of course, costs authors and publishers new sales. In the world of out-of-print paper, at least used books helped us find books that new bookstores no longer carried. But eBooks don’t have that minuscule shelflife issue.
Rob Preece
Publisher
All I want is to be able to read any ebook on my Kindle. That includes books from the library.
And when my Kindle eventually breaks, and I decide to go with another reader, I want all my books to work on it.
I don’t care to sell, lend, loan, borrow, steal, copy, or otherwise bring down the world of commerce as we know it.
I just want to read my books.
(Sorry, probably over sharing.)
According to copyright laws, it is illegal to resell a “used” ebook so the point is moot with or without DRM.
Information on the legal issues around ebook resell and the First Sale Doctrine–
http://mbyerly.blogspot.com/search/label/copyright
I’m a hoarder.
Plus I reread my favorites regularly.
So, resale is not a requirement for me. Not opposed to it; just have no use for it.
I would like to be able to resell, because the possibility of transferring rights (which I would have to do to sell a book) would make it possible to lend. Just “sell” to a friend for 0 $ and in two weeks she “sells” it back for the same price.
And I would like to be able to lend my e-books. So yeah, that would be a plus.
I agree that the he first purchaser, makes the money for big publishing companies and the right should be transferred with the sale. Why not let everyone resell and forget the DSM!
No. But I never resell print, either.
The books are copyrighted unless otherwise stated. DRM has nothing to do with it. Look into affiliate programs for selling other people’s products for a comission
Rick
Shelley makes a reasonable plea. Such comments are representative of many true readers, who should be better understood by all copyright holders.
Oh…and did you hear that? The used book market just died. The implications are profound.
That’s the problem with DRM Shelly. I agree you should be able to convert your Kindle book to other formats etc or it should be readable via other sources. Kindle does have a PC version of it’s program now by the way
Rick
Copyright per sé doesn’t preclude reselling. P-books, CD’s and DVD’s are copyrighted. They can still be resold. You can’t keep a copy yourself in general (in some countries you can). DRM comes into play because it effectively prevents the resell being useful.
Yes. Something I don’t like about eBooks is the drying up of the used books market that it represents. eBooks are not worth $14 since I don’t have resale rights like I do with a used copy of a physical book. More like $5 or so. In a very similar vein I like to be able to loan my books out. My sons enjoy reading the same sorts of books I do. Sometimes my wife wants to read a book I’ve got. Or my daughter. Or my brother might. I read a good book and then they want to. With an eBook they’ve got to buy it separately and then we’ve got three copies of the same book kicking around the house and worse yet we have to have multiple readers in the household, all compatible. I also don’t like the temporary nature of the eBooks that are teathered with DRM – if the business goes out then I lose my books and this does happen. Then there is the issue of what happens to my library of ebooks when the file format changes? It will change. My ebooks will get orphaned. This has happened over and over throughout history with computer data. No thanks. These issues need resolution.
What I do right now is have two feeds for free Kindle books in my feed reader as well as one of the free Kindle apps for my computer. When there’s a free ebook that might be interesting, I download it to my computer where I can read it at my leisure. And they’re not all old books either. Some of them are the first book of a series (as a teaser) or the like.
I figure if they ever do have a way to trade or sell the books, then I might invest in a real ereader. Until then, I will continue getting only the free ebooks and get regular books through Swap.com or the like.