ExtortionLetterInfo Forums
Retired Forums => Legal Controversies Forum => Topic started by: Greg Troy (KeepFighting) on July 10, 2012, 05:19:21 PM
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Yesterday the EFF along with other groups filed a brief with the United States Supreme Court asking them to rescue the first sale rights which have been under attack. This is another step that is needed to be addressed to help shut down the copyright insanity that has been going on. I think this is an issue we will need to follow closely as the court considers it.
But this case is important for another reason: it is a chance for the Supreme Court to send a message about the future of first sale rights. Over the past decade, courts and copyright owners have quietly been creating a world in which goods that contain copyrighted works are never truly owned, but only licensed. And those licenses inevitably contain a plethora of legal restrictions on consumers' ability to fully use those goods. Never mind that the consumer paid for a permanent copy and the seller doesn't really expect that the buyer ever give it back—the fine print claims to transform a sale into something else.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/07/public-interest-groups-supreme-court-bring-copyright-law-line-common-sense
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Good find Greg!
While addressing first sale rights is important, I would also like to see some direction with respect to a library's lending of books that recognizes and rewards the author. Most libraries today treat digital books like hard-copy. If one person has it on loan, another cannot take it out until the first person returns it. So we have put all the time honored rules necessary in a world of physical objects in place in the digital world because we can't think of a better way to reward authors???
There has to be some creative thinking done on this subject.
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Good point Stinger, I agree we need to find new ways and methods in dealing with all the copyright issues in the new digital age and the companies, authors and libraries will certainly have to adapt and change with the times and find ways to thrive or they may find themselves going extinct.
What I found particularly disturbing in concerning in the article was how companies were trying to deny right of first sale rights and apply nothing is owned only leased. Thank goodness we have organizations like the EFF out there fighting for our rights!