Re: Re: Amazon remotely deletes 1984

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009, bleepthisagain wrote:

> When I studied commercial law years ago the uniform commercial 
> code said that a good faith purchases from a merchant gave 
> clear title even if the merchandise was stolen -any recourse 
> was the responsibility of the merchant.  I know times have 
> changed any copyright law might mandate a different conclusion. 
> Anybody have current knowledge?

No. And after a little research, I don't even have definitive 
knowledge. But I have some possible points to consider:

- ebooks are not merchandise
- ebooks are licensed, not sold

There seems to be legal language to the effect that a purchaser 
of a licence cannot have rights that the seller never had. In 
this case - if Amazon never had the right to sell licenses to the 
ebook, then you didn't get the rights to a license of that ebook 
- good faith notwithstanding.

If Amazon *can* delete the item, then they might be *required* 
to delete it, because they are aware that you have an unlicenced 
copy of a work. (I've seen discussion elsewhere that such a 
capability might be an unforseen consequence of the design of the 
Kindle system. Convenience for the reader by way of Amazon 
unavoidably leads to inconvenience for the reader by way of 
Amazon in this circumstance.)

This also might clarify a key item that has been bounced around a 
few times. If the above is the case, then licencing *strongly* 
favours rights holders, to the point where there can't be a first 
sale doctrine. First sale would then appear to be predicated on 
the sale of real property, which a licence is not.


Overall, if this is the case, then ebooks can *never* be like 
books in some ways that are crucially important. Unless your 
license explicitly includes the ability to transfer the licence, 
you will never really be allowed to give or loan your ebook to 
someone else. You might not even be allowed to pass it on to 
your heirs in your estate.


Perhaps we've already legally banned useful ebooks - we just 
didn't know it yet.


: chris smith ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
: nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit - cicero :


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