Book publishers want you to think of selling used books as the "Napster" of the book business!

I am really loving The Importance Of... today. See what happens when you go away for a few days? All these interesting things go on.

Anyway, here's another post that just shocks, yes shocks me. Apparently book publishers would really love to strip us of our rights under the First Sale Doctrine. In copyright law, that is what allows you to sell your used media if it is copyrighted and the material is owned by someone else. It is the reason you can sell your used books and cds at thrift shops, used bookstores, and online. Yes, there really is a special statute for theses things you take for granted.

The NYT writes in this article that Amazon dot com's used book section has made it so efficient to sell used books that it is the new "Napster of the book selling business." What a crock, the analogy doesn't work for so many reasons.

Personally, I don't feel sorry for the publishers. They've been charging me hundreds of dollars per semester for their textbooks which they put out "new editions" of every other year just to keep (poor and broke) students like me from buying them used. For more on students pirating textbooks see here.

Via The Importance Of..., more at LawMeme.