The Legality of Lending Books.

[Gfactor]

@Sunspace

Re: permisssions of library materials…

Some of the videos available for borrowing at the Toronto library have specific permissions attached for public performance… unline the normal run-of-the-mill videos you get at Blockbuster.

In the US, that is handled by the Copyright Act, which says:

Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:
(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;
(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;
(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and
(6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

17 U.S. Code § 106 - Exclusive rights in copyrighted works

To “perform” a work means to recite, render, play, dance, or act it, either directly or by means of any device or process or, in the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to show its images in any sequence or to make the sounds accompanying it audible.

To perform or display a work “publicly” means—
(1) to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered; or
(2) to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or display of the work to a place specified by clause (1) or to the public, by means of any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places and at the same time or at different times.

17 U.S. Code § 101 - Definitions

[RealityChuck]

@Justin_Bailey

Librarian here. It’s actually legal to make a copy of a CD and circulate the copy as long as the original sits locked up in the library basement. The idea is if the CD is scratched (as idiot patrons are bound to do), the library doesn’t need to buy a new copy, just burn off another from the original.

Yes. Libraries have a special dispensation that allows them to make archive copies of copyrighted material. They can then circulate the copies. However, this only applies to actual libraries (and the definition of a “library” is strict), not to individuals.

[jackdavinci]

So is it illegal for someone with a photographic memory to remember (copy onto wetware) books, cd, and movies they have experienced?

[Shalmanese]

@Jeff Lichtman

This claim is itself laughable - for most books, it would be much cheaper (and far less work) just to buy an original than to make a copy.

In Asia, theres a rather active and thriving pirated, photocopied book trade. In that case, then economics of copying do work out cheaper than buying.

[spingears]

@awldune

College textbooks, on the other hand…

That is a topic for a whole new tirade.
Revised yearly if not quarterly so that the used college text book market is nonexistent.