My Copyright and Trademark professor made a really good point today in class that I wanted to expand on in relation to ownership and licensing books in tangible and digital form.When a person buys a book, he or she is not actually buying the expression of the ideas, the words on the paper or the concepts within the book. Instead he or she purchases the tangible, physical book. In other words, the sheets of paper, glue, paper or leather binding and ink which make up the book. The owner of the book can resell the book, rip all the pages out, or can build a gigantic bonfire and set the book on fire. There are no laws against taking your aggression out on old school books, law students. Light 'er up.
But digital copies of books complicate everything. When buying a digital copy of George Orwell's 1984, a purchaser doesn't purchase a physical, tangible book. Instead he or she buys a license to read the book. Licenses can have set durations, they can be revoked, and they are contractually created. When a user purchases a book from any one of the major eBook stores he or she agrees to terms of service in order to have access to the book.
Purchasers of licenses are not permitted to resell the book, make copies of the book, share the book with friends, or post a digital form of the book online. Some eBook stores don't even permit a user to print the book. All rights to the digital book are encompassed in a license.
The Big Problem
Here's the big problem. If I go to Barnes and Nobles and I buy 1984, I own the book. Nobody will ever knock on my door and remove my copy of 1984 from my book shelf. Even if Barnes and Nobles accidentally sold me an illegal copy of the book, it's still mine and I own it.What happened in the Amazon.com case is a little bit complicated, so let me explain. Amazon sells books and various other items. Amazon sells an eReader called the Amazon Kindle that allows users to download eBooks to their Kindle's for the cost of the digital license.
According to CNET, a publisher illegally made for purchase on Amazon's Kindle website 1984 and Animal Farm. Both books were still under copyright in the U.S., yet Kindle users were able to download the illegal digital copies of the books to their Kindles. The true copyright owner and publisher sued Amazon for copyright infringement. The copyright owners sough injunctive relief in the form of removal of all of the illegal copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from Amazon Kindle users' devices. Thus, the books magically disappeared. Why?
The minute a user purchases an eBook, his or her rights are defined under a license. The purchaser does not own a tangible product, but rather a license to use the product.
What does this mean for licensing rights? How many other items will magically disappear from our virtual bookshelves? What does this mean for privacy rights?
The Bigger Picture
For example, my professor asserted, "If I had a similiar case to this, I'd definitely demand removal of my digital copyrighted works from user's computers, Kindles or devices! I'd point to this as precedent! Who wouldn't? I'd probably win." That's frightening thought.
Did the court just set a precedent for digital copyright and licensing? If somebody in copyrights at your favorite online music store screws up the copyright on your favorite album, will your music disappear as well? Maybe your movies or software too? Do you really own anything digital? Would we even be questioning ownership rights as it relates to removal/deletion of your books, movies and music 20 years ago? Nope.
On that note, I find it utterly ironic that the removed books were copies of 1984 and Animal Farm. It's all very reminicent of a modern day McCarthy era book burning, except this is the Digital Age and we do it remotely and label it "Delete".
Thoughts?
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