The first sale doctrine is a legal concept thataproduct purchase provides the original consumer of copyrighted material with distribution rights, meaning the right to sell, copy or distribute the product. If making copies, however, the copies must not be considered an infringement of the copyright owner’s rights.
A very old doctrine, first sale doctrine was originally issued by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1908. Since this originally applied to protected physical materials, first sale doctrine is not as pertinent to copyrighted digital media. Still, the Copyright Act of 1976 enables the consumer to sell or lend copyrighted goods upon purchase without permission from the copyright holder. As a way around this, modern digital copyright owners negate the first sale doctrine by requiring consumers of their products to enter into licenses, thus providing consumers with mere renters’ rights, as opposed to owners’ rights. Current copyright laws pertaining to digital materials are continuously making the first sale doctrine obsolete.
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