Selling a NC'd book? (Re: Question about possible use of NC works)

wiki_tomos wiki_tomos at inter7.jp
Tue Apr 12 13:05:49 EDT 2005


Once and again, let me warn you that I am not a lawyer, so I could well be wrong. 
But I wanted to share my version of answers to drew's question.

If you are given a bound book licensed under CC-nc, and wants to give it to a 
friend, auction it online, or sell it to a used bookstore, that's no 
problem, in my understanding. 

The same can be said if you were a commercial used-bookstore owner selling 
that book. 

The important point is that all of these sales are made without making 
any copy of the book, nor any public performance, display, etc. of the work.
The act is, in other words, not relevant to copyright. 

Now, if you printed out that CC-nc'd book from online, that is a bit different.
In that case, you are the licensee because you created a print copy of a digital file. 
You cannot make a copy "primarily intended for or directed toward commercial 
advantage or private monetary compensation." 
(4b of the license text). In many (but not all) contexts, printing out for 
your own reading or decoration of your bookshelf is clearly legal. Gift-giving 
I would say is easier to defend, because file-exchange is explicitly said to be 
non-commercial and gift-giving among friends is very close to it. 

Leasing is also a bit different story, I suppose, at least in some countries. 
I cannot say much about this because I know so little, but I would appreciate 
if anyone can tell me the leasing right in relation to CCPLs.

Also, if the cover art of the book is also CC-nc'd, I am not sure if 
bookstores can display it to the customer, or a seller can show it to 
a potential buyer at an online auction. 

Regards, 

Tomos

----- Original Message -----
From: drew Roberts <zotz at 100jamz.com>
To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 07:42:34 -0400
Subject: Re: Question about possible use of NC works



>This brings up an interesting question which I have asked before but do not 
>recall seeing an answer to.
>
>Say I print up some books with CC BY-NC  works and give them to friends as 
>gifts. Can they sell them when they are done? To a used book store? Can the 
>used book store sell them? If I printed a bunch and gave them to a friend who 
>owns a new book store, could he sell them? (In other words, money would 
>definately be going from hand to hand, but not in connection with the person 
>making the copies in rthe first place.)



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