RE: Controlling Distribution of Disney Tapes

On Mon, 19 Aug 1996, Cumbow,Robert-SEA wrote:
>

[snip]
>
> What's to keep a book publisher from selling books shrink-wrapped with
> a license saying that the purchaser agrees to read and use the book
> for himself alone, and not to give, lend, or sell it to others? If
> the purchaser doesn't like that, he can always return the book (and
> live without reading it). And if he agrees to it, think of the
> increased sales the publisher will enjoy: no more lending or reselling
> of used books! Everyone who wants to read the book will have to buy
> it. (Of course the real result would probably be a land office business
> for public libraries. But they wouldn't be able to handle the demand.)

Below is the earliest (and ONLY) example _I_ have seen of a "shrink-wrap" licence printed with a novel: _Rezanov_ by Gertrude Atherton, the Authors and Newspapers Associaton, New York, 1906:

   ``NOTICE TO PURCHASER''
   ``This copyright volume is offered for sale to the public only    through the authorized agents of the publishers, who are    permitted to sell it only at retail and at fifty cents per copy,    and with the express condition and reservation that it shall not,    prior to August 1st, 1907, be resold, or offered or advertised    for resale. The purchaser from them agrees to this condition and    reservation by the acceptance of this copy. In case of any breach    thereof, the title to this book immediately reverts to the    publishers. Any defacement, alteration or removal of this notice    will be prosecuted by the publishers to the full extent of the

   law.''                 THE AUTHORS AND NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION

[It was printed on a page bound inside the front cover of the book] Anyone know the history or motivation behind this?

Charles Keller
<keller[_at_]ra.msstate.edu>

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