Re: Amazon remotely deletes 1984

>     Posted by: "Erica Frank" [email protected] elfwreck
>     Date: Tue Jul 28, 2009 7:37 pm ((PDT))
>
> Ebooks are sold.
> Courts have ruled that a transaction is a "sale" if it acts like a
> sale; calling it a "use license" doesn't change that.

A legal right isn't much help when the publisher controls your use of  
the product by technical means. At least not if the value of the  
product is low compared with the cost of litigation.

They've been saying "possession is nine points in the Law" since  
1616. With DRM, the reality of the situation is that "your" eBooks  
always remain in the possession of the seller.

Digital "rights" management gives the vendor the capability of  
imposing and enforce any restrictions it likes, whether or not those  
restrictions are actually aligned with its true legal rights. The  
history to date is that errors and casual overreaching are rife.

Everyone has the legal right to use computerized text-to-speech to  
read "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland" aloud, but if the Adobe eBook  
reader software thinks you don't, it's very hard to exercise that right.

I had the right, under the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, to make  
personal copies of commercial CDs, using extra-cost "Music CD-Rs"  
whose purchase pays into a royalty fund. That right didn't help me  
much when my home audio CD recorder refused to copy a CD that had  
been gimmicked, to make it hard to RIP on a computer. I tried  
explaining the legal situation to my home audio recorder, but it just  
kept displaying ERROR.

We've been arguing here for days about whether or not Amazon had the  
right (perhaps even the duty) to call back eBooks that had already  
been sold. But the important point is that Amazon had the power to do  
so _regardless of whether it had that right._



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