• conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    Because it’s a copy. It’s literally that simple.

    Libraries can operate because of first sale doctrine. You can do almost whatever you want with a physical object that contains a copyrighted work.

    What you can’t do is copy it. There is no possible legal way to distribute a digital copy of a work without an explicit license from the copyright holder. There isn’t even a legal concept of “owning” a digital copy. You purchase a license.