Excerpt from blog entry at Bookfinder.com:
I’d like to address this by analogy. My neighborhood bookstore sells a wide variety of reading accessories. For a one-time cost of about $10, a reader can use a vinyl full-page magnifier to see the text of any book in larger print than was originally intended, effectively an unauthorized large print edition. But I’ve never seen the Authors Guild condemn bookstores for selling magnifiers.
If it’s OK to spend $10 at a bookstore to turn virtually any book ever published into a serviceable large print edition, why is it so wrong to spend $359 at Amazon.com to turn a recently purchased ebook into a poor-quality audiobook?
Shamefully indifferent?
I note that the blog post takes off from a comment that, among other things, says bookstores are “shamefully indifferent” to copyright.
I suspect the writer means that bookstores sell used books. Legally. As is true for virtually all manufactured objects: When you buy something, you can also sell *that copy* of that something. Sell your lawnmower, and the manufacturer doesn’t get a cut. Sell a book, and the author doesn’t get a cut–in both cases, they already got theirs.
AG got away with special pleading in Amazon’s case. I’m sure they’d love to get rid of first-sale (and fair use) rights altogether. (Just as I’m nearly 100% sure that, given their way, AG would require libraries to pay each time a book is checked out…and most of those payments would go to the few authors who actually make a living from writing.)
Public Lending Right
>I’m sure they’d love to get rid of first-sale (and fair use) rights >altogether. (Just as I’m nearly 100% sure that, given their way, AG >would require libraries to pay each time a book is checked out..
I know you know Walt but I am posting this so others are aware. Many countries do require a fee every time a book is checked out from the library. It is called a Public Lending Right.