RE: Website ownership

by Doug Isenberg <disenberg(at)GigaLaw.com>

Date:	Tue, 22 Oct 2002 11:24:48 -0400
To:	<jeremy(at)localnetamerica.com>, "'dale'" <dale(at)daleznet.com>, <hwg-business(at)hwg.org>
References:	mindspring
	todo: View Thread, Original

At 11:16 AM 10/22/02, jeremy wrote:
>Wouldn't that then be the case if the agreement specifically said that
>you can not sell the site, or that they are leasing it, etc?  If it
>doesn't say any of these things, then aren't they free to sell the site
>under the "first sale doctrine", or am I not understanding this
>correctly?

         The "first sale doctrine" applies, according to the U.S. Copyright 
Act, only to "a particular copy... lawfully made."  And, it gives the 
possessor only the right to "sell or otherwise dispose of" that particular 
copy.  The doctrine does not allow the new possessor to exercise other 
copyright rights in the work -- such as the right to reproduce, distribute, 
display, prepare derivative works of or perform the work.

Doug Isenberg
Attorney at Law
Editor & Publisher, GigaLaw.com (http://www.GigaLaw.com)
Author, "The GigaLaw Guide to Internet Law" (Random House, October 2002) 
(http://www.GigaLaw.com/guide)

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