Charging the net....

[Rahul Dhesi]

In <PBX8114w164w at mantis.co.uk> mathew at mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes:

     You can't do that, either. "This book is sold subject to the
     condition that it shall not [...be...] circulated [...] in any
     form of binding or cover other than that in which it is
     published."

"...And without a similar condition being imposed on any subsequent
purchaser."

My guess is that there were two original reasons for this clause.
(1) To support the industry practice of allowing retailers to return
just the cover page of unsold softcover publications and get a refund
from the publisher.  (2) To encourage libraries to buy the hardcover
versions of books rather than buying cheaper paperbacks and adding
their own hard binding.

Reason 2 is probably no longer of much importance -- due to higher
labor costs, buying a paperback and rebinding it is probably about as
costly as buying the hardcover.  Reason 1 is probably still valid,
but...

...But I don't think this clause has any legal validity in the USA.
--
Rahul Dhesi <dhesi at cirrus.COM>
UUCP:  oliveb!cirrusl!dhesi