Dutch eBook Readers Being Reminded They Don't Actually Own Those eBooks They Bought
from the used-and-abused dept
I really do hate that most of the time we've spent here talking about eBooks, a digital technological advance that should be all about the wonderful expansion of knowledge and reading, is instead spent talking about that purchasing minefield eBooks have created by not actually allowing for true ownership. Whether it's retailers' DRM efforts to restrict access to already-paid-for books or the inability to get at the books you've purchased simply because you've moved around the world a bit, it's been made abundantly clear to the average reader that they do not own the eBooks they've purchased.
Well, folks in the Netherlands are having that point driven home to them at this moment as well, though there appears to be some mystery over who is actively teaching them this lesson. It seems that many citizens are getting emails accusing them of illegally selling unwanted eBooks.
In an email titled “Illegal dissemination of digital books”, sellers of pre-owned eBooks were warned, apparently by Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN, that their activities were illegal.The email goes on to state that the fine for this "infringement" is roughly $20k and up to six months in the clink -- all, keep in mind, for selling eBooks that had been legitimately purchased. Part of the problem here, though, is that nobody has sussed out who exactly is sending these letters, because BREIN has indicated it ain't them.
“The Brein Foundation acts against piracy of music, film, interactive software and digital books on behalf of rights and stakeholders such as authors, performers, publishers, producers and distributors,” the email begins. “We’ve detected that you are distributing digital books without permission being granted by the copyright holders. This practice is unlawful towards the rights-holders and if you infringe you are liable for the damage they suffer as a result.”
However, according to BREIN chief Tim Kuik the emails are nothing to do with his organization.So, essentially: people selling their legitimately purchased eBooks is totally illegal, we just aren't the clowns sending out these threat letters. Which gets us nowhere, of course, because it avoids the key issue at hand: do people who buy eBooks own those eBooks or not? As both a reader and a writer, I'm frankly tired of having this question even come up. If eBooks are not owned upon purchased, and are instead licensed or rented, then that's a fact that needs to be made extremely clear to the buyer. And I don't mean that it gets buried in a Terms of Service document that nobody reads. I mean abundantly clear.
“We are concerned,” Kuik told nos.nl. “Someone is stirring up weird stuff.”
While BREIN are hardly supporters of people selling used product, the anti-piracy group says it only usually targets those attempting to sell large quantities of illegitimate products online.
But that won't actually happen, because sellers know that as soon as they get in front of buyers and tell them they aren't actually buying what they're paying for, those purchases will dry up faster than a spill at a paper towel convention. So, who is threatening Dutch readers with jail time for selling a thing they bought? We don't know for sure and it really doesn't matter. The important bit is getting someone on the side of the consumer in this insane fight.
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Filed Under: copyright, ebooks, licenses, netherlands, ownership
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'The best way to get rid of a bad law is to enforce it fully'
It's entirely possible that they are breaking the law selling their ebooks, and the penalties are that high, and those sending out the threats are doing so to get some attention to those facts.
If eBooks are not owned upon purchased, and are instead licensed or rented, then that's a fact that needs to be made extremely clear to the buyer. And I don't mean that it gets buried in a Terms of Service document that nobody reads. I mean abundantly clear.
As for this? This is something that absolutely needs to be put into affect. If the only thing that the customer is 'buying' is a limited license, then the seller should be forbidden to mention 'Buy' anywhere during the transaction, and be forced to replace it with 'License' instead.
'Buy/Buy Now' becomes 'Purchase License' or 'License now'.
If you don't actually own what you paid money for, what you were told was a purchase, then you didn't buy the item, you paid money for a limited license, and sellers shouldn't be allowed to lie or deceive you and claim that you actually purchased anything more than that.
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Fortunately, Google gave me a refund.. but my options for buying ebooks are really limited. Does anyone know any other than the humblebundles that don't have DRM or at least have DRM that is not very intrusive?
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I've only seen the one email. Do you have any additional sources?
Also, this story isn't nearly as simple as you make it sound.
When the resale of ebook was legalized in the Netherlands in a ruling back in January, the judge attached conditions to the resale which were intended to reduce the chance of piracy. These ebook(s) were being sold through the Dutch equivalent of Ebay, and so the sales may have been illegal.
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printed text
br3n
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The widespread adoption of ebooks may potentially have another unintended consequence: the ultimate demise of public libraries.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140330/16413526737/everything-old-is-unavailable-again -how-copyright-has-ebooks-operating-1800s.shtm
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It will be interesting to see what action they take against those abusing the BREIN-brand in a blatant and illegal attempt to intimidate a legitimate second-hand bookseller.
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If It Ain't BREIN...
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Perhaps a lasting epidemic of e-book piracy would have a similar effect on the book publishing industry -- and serve to eliminate DRM from ebooks permanently.
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Pretty sure the text you quoted is intended to mean each person got an email, not that each person was getting multiple emails.
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Is that illegal? Depends on your location I'd guess, but if I actually bought something, I expect to be able to transform it how I see fit for my own personal use.
I've seen too many DRM schemes go under in the past 30 years (remember floppy disks with physical holes punched out of them?) to trust content I've purchased (or purchased the right to access for an unlimited time) if it stays in any DRM'd format.
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We only have evidence of a single person getting an email, so "many citizens" is inaccurate. One person is not "many".
And no, it is not illegal in the Netherlands to resell your legally purchased ebooks. You just have to comply with certain conditions.
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Probably illegal. Per the USA's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S. Code § 1201 - Circumvention of copyright protection systems):
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1201.html
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Abundantly clear as in a price that does not approximate, equal, or exceed the price of a 'dead tree' version. I don't "lease" a dead tree book; why would I pay the same price for an ebook version and not be the owner?
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Which is *also* kinda crazy but anyway, just to point out that it could be some independent entrepreneur (or exploiter).
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I have given up on Ebooks
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If you want, and depending on which genres you typically read, I could probably pick out a few that I've purchased and point you to them.
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I am finding books I got over 20 years ago. Not books handed down to me or anything, but books that came in from Christmas gifts, or with my allowance back when I was a kid.
Books you would NEVER see on an ebook!
Anyone else remember Where's Waldo?
I figured it out. He's hiding in corporate ToS agreements.
No-one will ever find him there.
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"Last year the Amsterdam Court dismissed complaints from book publishers, concluding that selling used eBooks sits in a legal gray area." A legal grey area. No-one should be threatened with huge fines and jail time for something that's legally "grey". This is the Star Wars bar scene, all over again.
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Re: BREIN
They are also morons.
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Re: I haven't given up on Ebooks
I'd made inroads into eBooks and then the above happened. I repeatedly asked Amazon what was going on and was ignored (no big surprise). From that point to this day I steer clear of proprietary devices like Kindles. And legal or not, I make sure that every eBook I have is purged of DRM.
Project Gutenberg, and the sheer convenience of eBooks is just too compelling to leave it's future in the hands of corporations and dolts.
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eBook end user licenses
I also reject ebooks that have Digital Restrictions Management, and I won't ever identify myself to get one.
See http://stallman.org/ebooks.pdf for why we should reject today's typical commercial ebooks.
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Re: 'The best way to get rid of a bad law is to enforce it fully'
If eBooks are not owned upon purchased, and are instead licensed or rented, then that's a fact that needs to be made extremely clear to the buyer.
To do otherwise is to commit fraud, but good luck with getting a pro-copyright advocate to admit to that.
This is the EXACT reason why I find myself increasingly sympathising with the "abolish copyright" faction. It's getting increasingly harder to do otherwise.
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