Question about selling e-books

This may answer your question, but in all likelihood, the SCM team would be best able to give you a definitive answer since they actually sell ebooks as part of the bookstore on this site.

This is a brief excerpt from an article I recently read: “Traditionally the purchase of digital goods has operated under a license agreement, meaning that consumers do not own the works they purchase. Without lawful ownership of the goods, a consumer does not have the right to resell that good.”

So, it would seem the short answer is “no, it is not legal to resell ebooks” since you are only licensed to use them and do not actually own them. Here is the link to the full article: http://library.osu.edu/blogs/copyright/2013/04/23/the-first-sale-doctrine-and-the-sale-of-digital-goods-in-light-of-kirtsaeng-and-redigi-inc/.

Having said that, the issue has not been clearly settled in the courts, and it appears that future cases will address this issue. I don’t think it is a matter of individual private sellers blatantly ignoring the law; most people simply do not know the answer to the question of legality.

I admire and appreciate your desire to act as a woman of integrity.

I wanted to add that I truly appreciate SCM’s policy of “you bought it, you own it” regarding their ebooks. Most of the time, used copies are the only way we can afford all of the materials we need if they are not available at local libraries.

A good way to think about this is that you would treat a digital book like a physical copy unless you have an agreement with the publisher that adds other restrictions or freedoms.

A physical book can be in one place at a time. When you resell it you no longer have it.

In the same way, if you resell an e-book, you legally cannot keep any copies. That means it must be removed from your computer, backups, e-book readers, etc. Any printed copies would need to be destroyed or passed along to the buyer. That also means you cannot keep printed pages of a consumable book with your child’s work as a record of school work, as that would be keeping a copy.

We request that you provide a statement to the buyer certifying that you have destroyed any copies. We can’t make you do that, but it makes the whole thing cleaner for you and the buyer, and anyone who may question your actions. If you buy a used e-book from someone you could insist on such statement too. That way you’ve made it clear that you insist on following the law and you’ve done everything you can to do so.

As Jordan mentioned, other publishers and sellers may have different policies. For example, when you buy e-books from the big online sellers they make you agree to terms ahead of time that you are licensing the book, do not own it, and cannot resell it, etc.

I’ve seen many smaller publishers add a statement in the front of their books with restrictions that go beyond copyright law. Those are not legally binding because you did not agree to the terms before or as part of the sale. But you’ll have to decide if you will go with the letter of the law, honor the wishes of the publisher, talk to the publisher about it, or choose not to do business with them.