wikipedia article: First-sale doctrine

"First-sale doctrine"
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

count: 3 pages (reading through links given beyond original page)

This week I participated in an ALA webinar by Sue Polanka about eBooks and the environment in which libraries are considering and using this medium for resources.

In the discussion, the phrase right of first sale came up, and I explored a little further. 

I have asked for years why libraries are legally able to do what they do: purchase and then loan materials. In today's atmosphere of strict copyright enforcement attempts and a general rule of "it's my intellectual / creative property and I'll sue if you use it," the background to library circulation was obscured.

Fortunately, this concept cleared that up for  me.

In short, first-sale doctrine has been recognized by court of law and codified by US statute:

It allows the purchaser to transfer (i.e., sell, lend or give away) a particular lawfully made copy of the copyrighted work without permission once it has been legally obtained. This means that the copyright holder's rights to control the change of ownership of a particular copy ends once ownership of that copy has passed to someone else, as long as the copy itself is not an infringing copy. This doctrine is also referred to as the "right of first sale," "first sale rule," or "exhaustion rule."

Now that I understand the legal concept, it seems striking that our digital society has gone so far in the other direction! Profit and corporate restrictions now seem out of balance and questionable: Obviously I have a lot more reading to do.