Re: first sale doctrine

On Wed, Mar 29, 2000, Karen Coyle <karen.coyle[_at_]ucop.edu> wrote:
>
> ...
> 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.

yes, but the liberalization is pointless because of the need to have the hardware and software locks on the machine that the book is being read on, i.e. the lender and the lendee both. (for example, you'd have to have Microsoft Reader or Glassbook installed on the second machine--and many publishers don't trust the locks unless they are tamperproof, i.e., a machine different from your conventional laptop.)

they make it sound like ebx is some sort of "standard" that libraries and other members of the user public actually agree to: in fact, the consumer and public is not represented in these counsels at all, and this statement that DMCA prevents fair use is fair.

-- 
"Eric"  Eric Eldred  Eldritch Press
mailto:Eldred[_at_]EldritchPress.org
http://www.eldritchpress.org/EricEldred.vcf