I’m opening a bookshop that sells physical books. I have a machine that scans physical books and converts them into digital books. If a customer buys a physical book but wants to get a digital version for free, he can give me his physical book, which I store in my shop, and I can give him the digital version, but if the customer wants to get the physical version of his book, I have to take back his digital version. The only transaction the customer has to make is to buy the physical book, whereas nowadays, physical books are sold separately from their digital versions. Does my bookshop comply with the law?
There was this company doing something similar with CDs. They sold the physical medium and then let you download the ripped files and store the CDs at their place. In fact, you could just buy the record online and directly download a .flac from their website. And if you wanted, you could have the physical medium shipped to you.
Apparently that was legal, but they have gone bankrupt a few years ago iirc. They were called Murphies (idk about the spelling).
I don’t know the exact laws or if they are different between different countries, but I don’t think it’s legal at all to just hand out free digital scans of copyrighted books or even to sell them for that matter. I could see doing that for books that are old enough to be public domain, but anything more current definitely sounds illegal to me.
Also I have no idea how you could “take back” a digital file from a customer. All they have to do is download the file to literally any device and you would never know or have any way to make them delete it.
Is someone going to want to invest in a new e-reader just to read books from your shop though?
It still doesn’t seem legal if the digital copies are of any books that aren’t public domain, unless you have some kind of licensing agreement with the publishers
I want to build a way for people to sell their books in my bookshop. From there I scan them and the digital copy is linked to the physical copy. It’s as simple as that. I think there should only be comic books and other photography-type books in terms of physical books, whose production costs are absurd and costly for the environment, it has to be said! My aim is to get people to migrate to digital books.
It’s a nobel concept but it definitely doesn’t sound legal. You can’t just give away free copies of books that the authors are still getting royalties/payments for. You’re basically just stealing from the original author or their families at that point even if you’re not getting paid for it. You can’t just redistribute someone’s intellectual property without compensating them or having some kind of agreement. What your describing just sounds like a file torrent on a pirating site lol
but if the customer wants to get the physical version of his book, I have to take back his digital version.
I mean, how can they “give back” a digital file?
If I sell my own e-readers? With lots of protection systems. I don’t know.
Yeah, that’s what’s going to get you.
Maybe if you loaned/rented them, but not many would go thru that hassle.
And you’d need your own locked down ecosystem they can’t crack.
On top of all that, I’m pretty sure even libraries got sued over doing this.
I remeber someone once tried to stream physical blu rays online to people for a small fee. And that didn’t work out legally either.
I think the answer is no even if they own only a single copy (digital or physical) at a time.
This company copies home movies from VHS to DVD. The linked article implies that when you buy a product you’re only buying the format you purchased. So if you buy a physical book you’re only buying the rights to have the physical book, not a digital copy of the book.
IANAL, but I doubt it. While I think it probably follows the spirit of the law, it’s unlikely to meet the actual law itself - which is what counts.
Of course, you don’t mention what country you’re from - which could make all the difference…
What’s the point of you storing physical copies? Is this deal only valid at the time of sale, so you could essentially just put the physical copy back on the shelf if they want the ebook, and then just grab a copy if they wanted to exchange? Or are you planning on dedicating a large amount of storage space to the specific book each customer purchased and then wanted the ebook of?
Strictly speaking, that doesn’t really answer my question. Would you be physically holding onto designated copies for people?
Yes, we can imagine that each customer has a drawer in which the customer’s books are stored. Now that I think about it, it’s a bit what Netflix was doing at this beginning that I’d like to do, if you know what I mean! There I just want to see if it’s legally possible for fun!
Leaving aside legality, who would want this?
I somehow don’t really get the concept. I buy a physical book and I can swap my physical book for a digital copy and back? Why would I want this, apart from getting a free digital copy of the book after copying it and swapping back and why would you want to store my personal library for free, when I can always come and get my books back? If I wanted an e-book I’d just get that in the first place.
You can’t own two copies of the book at the same time: that’s the whole point of the concept. Yes, you can make copies of the physical book, but even today that’s not very important - the book industry is doing well. What’s more, you can imagine a bookshop that offers a two-way street: you like having an e-book but then you find it good enough to buy it in physical form. In that case, you add a few dollars more to get the physical version.
You can trivially copy and ebook though, so can’t prove deletion.
Sounds like you’re bootlegging, which is illegal in many (first world) countries. That is unless you’re selling purely public domain stuff.
You should probably ask someone with legit knowledge of the local law instead of the internet.
