Why not?

I have probably 1000 books in my house. My daughters come by all the time and leave with stacks of them to read. They bring them back and leave with another stack. People know we have a ton of books and ask to borrow certain ones. (We live in a tiny rural town where the tiny town library is open about 8 hours a week.)

Speaking of libraries, people go there all the time to read books they don't own.

A library is a publicly owned place. There is a big difference.

Ok, what if they were DVD's, and what if I invited 100 friends?

When you look at it that way it changes things.

You aren't copying them. Yes, it's legal.

Ok, what if they were DVD's, and what if I invited 100 friends?

When you look at it that way it changes things.

DVDs usually have a warning message on them stating they are only to be used for private viewing and prohibiting showing them in a public setting. If your house can fit 100 friends, you're probably good to go. If you show it in a bar and the general public is invited, then you're getting into a gray area. If you upload it to a video sharing site, you're long past gray.

The difference comes down to "licensing issues." If you buy a book, it is basically yours to keep and redistribute however you want (as long as you don't make copies of it). If you buy it for $12 and later find someone who wants to pay $20 for it- that's legal. (Technically, you'd be subject to income tax on the $8 difference, but that's a different issue.)

Other media have completely different issues surrounding them.

Going back to the book issue, I may be wrong (since I'm not a lawyer), but I would say that even if you charged someone to read your book, you would be within your legal rights. Then again, I haven't read the copyright notice inside a book's cover lately, so I'm not sure if it covers something like this now.

[edited by: LifeinAsia at 5:52 pm (utc) on June 9, 2008]

Thanks for the replies, very useful.

Do you think the same rules apply to digital products? such as ebooks?

I think most have some kind of wording that you can never have more than 1 copy of it somewhere.

But you can certainly allow your friends come over and read the ebook on your computer. Or if it's on a laptop, you can let your friends borrow your laptop to read it.

[edited by: LifeinAsia at 3:35 pm (utc) on June 11, 2008]

ok, that makes sense...

but could I for example, print out the ebook, and then delete the e-file? ;-)

Thanks guys.

My question is this... is it legal for me to invite him to my home to read them?

Are you serious or do you have something else in mind?

A library is a publicly owned place. There is a big difference.

A library has to follow copyright law just as a private individual. There is no difference.

but could I for example, print out the ebook, and then delete the e-file? ;-)

You could keep the e-file too.

FarmBoy

A library has to follow copyright law just as a private individual. There is no difference.

While it is true that they have to follow copyright law, just like an individual, section 108 (in the united states) gives libraries rights that the individual doesn't have. So there is a difference.

A library has to follow copyright law just as a private individual. There is no difference.

Libraries have to pay Public Lending Rights for every book that gets lent out, in many countries. It's something like 2p for each loan, I think, and it goes to the authors.