|Volume 20, Number 1||The CPSR Journal||Summer 2002| What the
Copyright Office Got Wrong by Karen Coyle As part of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), the Copyright Office
was charged with managing an ongoing process of evaluating how
technology developments are affecting the copyright law. In June
2000 they asked for comments on the effect of technology on
sections 109 and 117 of title 17, United States Code, otherwise
known as "first sale." CPSR provided comments relating in
particular to the technological aspects of the law1. In August
of 2001 the Copyright Office issued its report2, a document that
is shocking in its misinterpretation of technology and law, and
dangerous in its conclusions. First Sale and Technology First
sale is a part of the copyright doctrine that states that the
copyright holder (the author or publisher, usually the publisher
in today's world) has rights only on the first sale of the
physical item. It is first sale doctrine that allows you to sell
a book as a used boo