Imagining a Swap Meet for E-Books and Music
The paperback of âFifty Shades of Greyâ is exactly like the digital version except for this: If you hate the paperback, you can give it away or resell it. If you hate the e-book, youâre stuck with it.
The retailerâs button might say âbuy now,â but you are in effect only renting an e-book â" or an iTunes song â" and your rights are severely limited. That has been the bedrock distinction between physical and electronic works since digital goods became widely available a decade ago.
That distinction is now under attack, both in the courts and the marketplace, and it could shake up the already beleaguered book and music industries. Amazon and Apple, the two biggest forces in electronic goods, are once again at the center of the turmoil.
In late January, Amazon received a patent to set up an exchange for all sorts of digital material. The retailer would presumably earn a commission on each transaction, and consumers would surely see lower prices.
But a shudder went through publishers and media companies. Those who produce content might see their work devalued, just as they did when Amazon began selling secondhand books 13 years ago. The price on the Internet for many used books these days is a penny.
On Thursday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office published Appleâs application for its own patent for a digital marketplace. Appleâs application outlines a system for allowing users to sell or give e-books, music, movies and software to each other by transferring files rather than reproducing them. Such a system would permit only one user to have a copy at any one time.
Meanwhile, a New York court is poised to rule on whether a start-up that created a way for people to buy and sell iTunes songs is breaking copyright law. A victory for the company would mean that consumers would not need either Appleâs or Amazonâs exchange to resell their digital items. Electronic bazaars would spring up instantly.
âThe technology to allow the resale of digital goods is now in place, and it will cause a dramatic upheaval,â said Bill Rosenblatt, president of GiantSteps, a technology consulting firm. âIn the short term, itâs great for consumers. Over the long term, however, it could seriously reduce creatorsâ incentive to create.â
Scott Turow, the best-selling novelist and president of the Authors Guild, sees immediate peril in the prospect of a secondhand digital thrift shop. âThe resale of e-books would send the price of new books crashing,â he said. âWho would want to be the sucker who buys the book at full price when a week later everyone else can buy it for a pennyâ
He acknowledged it would be good for consumers â" âuntil there were no more authors anymore.â
Libraries, though, welcome the possibility of loosened restrictions on digital material.
âThe vast majority of e-books are not available in your public library,â said Brandon Butler, director of public policy initiatives for the Association of Research Libraries. âThatâs pathetic.â
He said that 60 percent of what the associationâs 125 members buy was electronic, which meant sharp restrictions on use. Libraries cannot buy from Appleâs iTunes, he said. And so, for example, Pixarâs Oscar-winning soundtrack for the movie âUpâ is not available in any public collection. An Apple spokesman confirmed this.
âIf these things canât be owned, who is going to make sure they exist going forwardâ Mr. Butler asked. âWithout substantial changes, we canât do what libraries have always done, which is lend and preserve.â
For over a century, the ability of consumers, secondhand bookstores and libraries to do whatever they wanted with a physical book has been enshrined in law. The crucial 1908 case involved a publisher that issued a novel with a warning that no one was allowed to sell it for less than $1. When Macyâs offered the book for 89 cents, the publisher sued.
That led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling limiting the copyright ownerâs control to the first sale. After that, it was a free market.
Sales of digital material are considered licenses, which give consumers little or no ability to lend the item. The worry is that without such constraints digital goods could be infinitely reproduced while still in the possession of the original owner.
A version of this article appeared in print on March 8, 2013, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Reselling the E-Goods.