Publisher 'DRMs' Physical Legal Textbook About 'Property,' Undermines Property And First Sale Concepts

Posted by BernardSwiss on May 8, 2014 8:01 AM EDT
Techdirt; By Mike Masnick
Mail this story
Print this story

We've talked in the past about just how badly certain industries would love to expand the restrictions created by DRM onto physical goods. And that's because, unlike what copyright system defenders like to claim, DRM allows companies to put restrictions on content that go way beyond what kind of restrictions can be placed on physical goods. For example: the right to resell something. In the copyright space, we've long had the first sale doctrine, which makes it possible for you to resell a physical book you own, without having to first get permission from the copyright holder. Of course, first sale has long been under attack, especially by academic publishers who absolutely hate the idea of a resale market. That's because they are monopoly providers -- professors assign the textbooks, and students need to buy them, leading to ridiculously inflated prices.

Full Story

  Nav
» Read more about: Story Type: Editorial, News Story; Groups: Intellectual Property, Standards

« Return to the newswire homepage

This topic does not have any threads posted yet!

You cannot post until you login.