re: First sales Doctrine comments

Here is my own comment to the US Copyright Office 
<CopyrightComments2013-PVb/[email protected]>:

May I first point out that any decision by the US on legislation in this 
field will affect the rest of the world, since ebooks areâ€â€through the 
internetâ€â€without realistic national boundaries.

Secondly, while print books are sold as "in toto" items, the content is 
still licensed; it is restricted by the fact there is no permission to 
copy that content. To alter that postion is, of course, to destroy 
copyright altogether.

Ebooks are virtually nothing but content; there are no physical or 
permanent pages to hold the content, nor is there a binder or cover wrap 
of any sort. Thus the whole is licenced as content. The containing file 
is a delivery system, and in itself invisible to the eye, and not 
sensual to the hand. The reader, whether it be dedicated device, phone, 
tablet, laptop or desktop, is a receptor, and is not in any way 
connected to the content purchase of a licenceâ€â€to read, but not make any 
copies.

While part of the delivery system requires the technical and temporary 
making of copies, in order to place a readable form of the licenced 
content onto a screen, and similarly to transmit from seller to 
purchaser, this in no way parallels the issue of ebooks in relation to 
First Sale Doctrine.

Since ebooks are licenced-content only, and it is easy to make copies of 
them, the outcome of applying First Sales Doctrine to a content only 
form of the writer's work is to destroy the limited individual 
monopliesof copyright, and deny the US Constitution in granting that 
monopoly and its reasons for doing so. The contribution of literature to 
American and world culture would cease with the consequent loss of 
income potential for writers.

Joseph Harris, S P Publications, London, England, UK



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