Physically altering copyrighted material.

[Jayplac]

We all know that the law can be very specific and million dollar lawsuits have come down to the meaning of one small word before. I'm not trying to be pedantic or argumentative. Just accurate. Thank you all for your help.

Quincy, In reference to your above statement, I just read a section from "Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law" By Jason Mazzone which states that once a copy of any work has left the copyright holder, he has relinquished all control of that one specific copy. This is the 'First-Sale Doctrine' and was decided in 1961 off of comic books which were turned over to a waste company who then sold them.

Thanks again, everyone.

 

[quincy]

We all know that the law can be very specific and million dollar lawsuits have come down to the meaning of one small word before. I'm not trying to be pedantic or argumentative. Just accurate. Thank you all for your help.

Quincy, In reference to your above statement, I just read a section from "Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law" By Jason Mazzone which states that once a copy of any work has left the copyright holder, he has relinquished all control of that one specific copy. This is the 'First-Sale Doctrine' and was decided in 1961 off of comic books which were turned over to a waste company who then sold them.

Thanks again, everyone.

Jason is incorrect. A copyright holder retains rights in sold copies. Read the copyright notice on the flyleaf of all books.

The first sale doctrine applies to legally purchased copies. Once a buyer purchases a legal copy of a book, he is allowed to resell it (even at a profit) or he can give the book away or throw the book away or trade it for something he wants. He cannot, however, infringe on the EXCLUSIVE rights of the copyright holder.

If the owner of a book throws the book away, anyone can retrieve the book from the trash (if the trash is not placed on private property and in order to retrieve it would require trespassing).

Selling altered or coverless books will send up red flags, however, and the seller can expect to be contacted by the copyright holders.