What are you doing tonight? Interested in hearing about the First Sale Doctrine in the Digital Age? Then come to the event and CLE at Davis Wright Tremaine (it actually is there this time) from 6-8pm for a presentation and potential diatribe on the topic. $25 for attorneys (1.0 CLE credits), $15 for non-attorneys, and FREE for students!

What is the first sale doctrine? It’s an exception to the Copyright Act of 1976 (17 U.S.C. §109) that allows consumers to do certain things with their physical copy of a copyrighted work. Usually explained using a book, the first sale doctrine allows readers to resell, recycle, or photocopy limited portions of their books without fear that the author will shut down the secondary market of used books. It does NOT extend to transferring the copyright contained within the book, or to create derivative works from the contents of that book.

So what does this mean with digital content? Can you separate the property right from the “physical copy” of the work when the copy is intangible? Should the first sale doctrine apply to digital works? Besides DRM, how would the copyright owner or publisher be able to ensure that the end user is only doing what they are allowed to do under the relatively narrow exception? Should that even be a concern? All this and more (probably) tonight!