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Comment by eesmith | Hacker News Reader

> Compulsory/statutory licensing would be one solution. As I understand it, that's what allows libraries to exist.

I don't think that's the case. At least, what allows libraries in the US is the "first-sale doctrine." From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine , "The doctrine enables the distribution chain of copyrighted products, library lending, giving, video rentals and secondary markets for copyrighted works (for example, enabling individuals to sell their legally purchased books or CDs to others)."

Something similar is why I can place an ad to sell my used Mac without violating Apple's trademark.

I assume Sweden (and the EU) have something similar. If not, that makes second-hand book, magazine, or any product sales rather difficult.

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I looked it up, and you are technically correct ("the best kind of correct").

https://lagen.nu/1960:729#P19S1

> 19 § När ett exemplar av ett verk med upphovsmannens samtycke har överlåtits inom Europeiska ekonomiska samarbetsområdet, får exemplaret spridas vidare.

Translated:

> 19 § When a specimen, with the consent of the author, has been transferred within the European economic area, the specimen may be further transferred.

The law goes on to carve out exceptions for computer programs and movies specifically, as well as renting generally -- those kinds of transfers are not allowed without author approval.

However, in combination with Biblioteksersättningen/författarfonden ("the library compensation/author fund"), which collects money based on the amount of lending in public libraries and distributes it to authors, it comes pretty close to statutory licensing in practice. It's not immediately clear to me that the payout is proportionally divided, though, so depending on how that skews, I may be way off.

"Technically correct"? That seems like the same concept.

> as well as renting generally -- those kinds of transfers are not allowed without author approval.

Could you elaborate? If I set up a used car rental service in Sweden, and that car includes a user manual, then do I need permission from the copyright owner to include that manual in the rental?

> in combination with Biblioteksersättningen

On the topic of "technically correct", https://sv-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Biblioteksers... tells me that technically it's not part of copyright:

] This is because it only benefits domestic authors. In the Nordic countries, library compensation has not been part of international copyright but part of national cultural policy. Other consequences of this are that the library compensation has a maximum amount, so that the most borrowed authors do not receive compensation in proportion to the lending and that no compensation is paid for loans from research libraries.

That quote tells me the payout is not proportionally divided.

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