{"id":27697,"date":"2019-12-26T17:02:33","date_gmt":"2019-12-26T22:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=27697"},"modified":"2019-12-30T15:22:03","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T20:22:03","slug":"copyright-exhaustion-does-not-apply-to-e-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/26\/copyright-exhaustion-does-not-apply-to-e-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Copyright Exhaustion Does Not Apply to E-books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory O’Neill<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In a highly-anticipated decision<\/a>, issued today, December 19, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held that offering ‘second-hand’ e-books for sale qualifies as an unauthorised “communication to the public” under the 2001 InfoSoc Directive.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

This is because e-books do not deteriorate with use and are therefore a perfect substitute for new physical copies of the work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

In a way, e-books with DRM do deteriorate because there is always the risk that the DRM provider will get out of that business or stop supporting the platform you care about.<\/p>\n\n

Via Howard Oakley<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

According to the publishers in that recent case in the CJEU, you get a perpetual licence (not ownership) to access their copyright content, which never deteriorates in the same way that physical books do. As a result, the publishers claimed successfully, you aren’t free to sell on your licence, and can only do so if they, the copyright owners, agree.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

What amazes me about all this is that the many penalties and drawbacks of eBooks aren’t the result of the medium itself, but have been cunningly devised and implemented by eBook publishers. It’s almost as if they don’t want us to license eBooks in the first place.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n