Resale of videos vs. games

[Lang Thompson]

>I was also wondering about other countries.  I know Reel.com sells used 
>videos, so is this practice permissable in the U.S.?  What about other 
>countries?


This answer may be a bit more than you want to know but:  I wasn't aware of
this provision in Japan but if the music and film companies in America had
their way it would be like that here as well.  In fact, the music industry
tried to prevent the sale of used CDs a few years back (Garth Brooks was a
big supporter of the attempted ban) but nothing ever came of it (or film
industry attempts to stop tape rentals or in the early days of radio,
record labels trying to prevent their records from being played over the
air for free).  In US and British copyright law (and I think most
European/common law systems as well) there's what's known as the doctrine
of first sale which basically says that the owner of a copyrighted work is
only entitled to profit from the first sale of that work but not any
subsequent sales.  So a book publisher and author make their money from
that initial sale but not from the old and well-established used & rare
book market or a painter from the first sale of her painting but not when
it's sold later to a museum for 100 times the original price.  However,
this doctrine only applies to the original work/copy, it doesn't mean that
whoever owns that book can run off more or owns the painting can sell
postcards of it.  Part of the reasoning is that allowing the copyright
owner to profit from every subsequent sale of a work/copy is that it would
put an unreasonable burden or chilling effect on the free exchange of
ideas.  In fact, something very similar happened earlier in the century
when music publishers controlled recording of their songs so that only a
select few versions were available until a compulsory license was created
where once the song had first been recorded then anybody else could record
a cover version by paying a specific fee determined by statute.  That's not
even going into the practical problems that would be caused by trying to
find out who to pay for a book out of print for decades or a sculpture
that's changed hands numerous times or conceivably a building collectively
designed by an architecture firm that's long been out of business.  But I
think you get the idea.

LT
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Lang Thompson
http://www.tcf.ua.edu/wlt4

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