3 ms·
Once a book is purchased [the customer] owns the rights to that material [indefinitely] According to most people's common sense, maybe, but certainly not accor
by andreyf 17y ago
Once a book is purchased [the customer] owns the rights to that material [indefinitely]
According to most people's common sense, maybe, but certainly not according to US copyright law. Copyright law is very clear about under what what terms authors may license their work, and licensing it for indefinite time is not a requirement.
Edit: I'm just stating facts, not saying it's right. Personally, I see both sides. But if one argues that copyright law should be changed, I don't see why Amazon, a public corporation, should take away rights from publishers which have granted to them by the laws passed in a government supposedly representing the will of the people.
- _pi 17y agoUS laws on ownership are retarded. You know you live in a screwed up country when you can sell everything above the ground and below the air(gov't territory) to one buyer and everything below the ground to another.
- andreyf 17y agoWell, "owership" is very different from "licensed intellectual works". The similarity between "intellectual property" and "property" is purely semantic and without legal basis.
- gojomo 17y agoFor physical books, you're wrong. See the first sale doctrine. For digital goods, the precedents are mixed. Despite the claims and agenda of copyright lobbies, US law has always had limits and exceptions on a rightsholders' ability to dictate all terms of their works' use and reproduction. The resolution isn't fixed; it's up to us: what we tolerate, what we legislate, what we build.
- timwiseman 17y agoExcellent point. Once they have sold me a copy of a work, I cannot then reproduce and distribute that work without permission (or waiting a very long time indeed for the copyright to expire), but there are a great many other rights that I have without any need for permission. And that is under current law, the laws can be changed.
- jacquesm 17y agoAmazon found out they never had the rights to sublicense that book. So, instead of paying a fee to the publisher to settle the case they decided to reverse the deal end-to-end. This should have been impossible. Suing over just that has my vote, the homework issue doesn't enter in to it at all.