Re: first sale doctrine

On 3/27/00, Peter D. Junger <junger[_at_]samsara.law.cwru.edu> wrote:
>
> As I read the documentation the restrictions are enforced by
> technology and thus there is no contract -- and no need for a
> contract until the technological measures are defeated. For example,
> you can't lend the book because it will only play on the machine to
> which you downloaded it.

That may be the case, but these four restrictions also happen to be the restriction categories from the Electronic Book Exchange (EBX) standard. See: <http://www.ebxwg.com/>. This standard is based on certificate technology that would allow copies to be sold (licensed?) with various lending and selling conditions that will be enforced by the ebook software. The lending conditions are aimed at mollifying libraries and include both the lending right and the lending period (i.e. three weeks). Naturally, the examples given in the standard's documentation show items being lent to friends, re-sold, etc., thus masking the ability of this standard to nullify current rights of readers.

Participants in the EBX working group, and therefore likely to be making use of the standard early on, include Glassbook, HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin, SoftBook Press, Microsoft, Xerox and others.

Karen Coyle                    karen.coyle[_at_]ucop.edu
  University of California Digital Library
  http://www.kcoyle.net        510/987-0567
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