Copyrights vs First Sale Doctrine

joeyarnoldvn(67)

Published in

#law

Words

662

Reading

3 min

Listen

Play

8y

You may know the first.

But what about the latter? The First Sale Doctrine is an exception to copyright holder's distribution rights. Once a copyrighted good is legally sold or donated, the distribution right is expired. In other words, if you buy a book, then you can sell that book. When you buy the book, you buy the right of distribution to that book. You can donate it. You can throw it away. You can let people borrow. Rent it out to people. However, you may not own reproduction rights for the book. I'm not too sure how digital books work. For example, some software and digital content publishers claim in their End-User License Agreements (EULA) that their software or content is licensed and not sold which then renders the First Sale Doctrine as invalid in those cases. When they say the word, "License," it basically means rent. I'm for more ownership rights. I'm against rent. Well, you can rent if you want. You can rent stuff out. I'm for those choices but am also for more directness, honesty. I don't want people to lie to me. If you sell me something, then please don't take it back later on. Don't come back next year and say, "Just kidding, you were only renting it." What are Grey Markets?

Distribution vs Reproduction Rights.

A distribution right is given to the buyer.
A reproduction right is given to the copyright holder.

Why have a Distribution Right?

If you do not have that, then you would have to get permission from me before selling my book, for example. You would have to negotiate that. Think about garage sales, yard sales.

Fair Use?

What is fair use?

Blockchain

I want to know how some of these laws, copyrights, trademarks, and everything, work in the world of blockchain systems, cryptocurrencies, decentralized networks. In some cases, a copyright may not allow for something to be transferred to certain countries or places. However, if you are on an international blockchain or Bit Torrent system, then your stuff may be nowhere and everywhere all at the same time because of decentralization. So, this means you may not be able to stop it or restrict it. It is like trying to stop the wind. it is like trying to stop your boat from sinking. Imagine that each hole in your boat represents a computer. A decentralized system is like a bunch of holes in a boat. You can try to stop some of them. How can you stop all of them?