Maybe this has been answered before, and I thought I had understood the legality of the issue, but after discussing this with a friend (holder of a lawyer degree but no longer practising), I am now a bit confused. I sell individual pages removed from old books and magazines, such as art plates, magazine articles, and advert cuttings. Is this unlawful and considered a copyright breach? Is it relevant whether the publication is still under copyright? I was under the impression that reselling any book, magazine or newspaper that you bought, either whole or just partially - such as selling some of the pages, illustrations, cuttings, etc., was not a copyright infringement. Am I wrong? I’m not making any reproductions nor including any framing or such extras, just selling individual pages and magazine cuttings taken from publications that I bought (some are older than others). Any advice is much appreciated
You are right that reselling individual illustations etc from books or magazines does not infringe copyright due to the doctrine of exhaustion of rights. In this particular case, it is the distrubution right within copyright which is involved. In this context UK law is governed by Article 4(2) of the EU Information Society Directive* (Directive 2001/29/EC)
Article 4
Distribution right
1. Member States shall provide for authors, in respect of the original of their works or of copies thereof, the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit any form of distribution to the public by sale or otherwise.
2. The distribution right shall not be exhausted within the Community in respect of the original or copies of the work, except where the first sale or other transfer of ownership in the Community of that object is made by the rightholder or with his consent.
This rather confusing way of expressing the concept means that once a rights holder has distributed (for instance by selling) the goods concerned, they can no longer exercise their distribution right with regard to those particular items after the sale. Since you are not copying the work by doing this, you also do not infringe the copying element of copyright.
Perhaps your friend was concetned about the moral rights which can attach to a copyright work, in particular the paternity right. This is the right of the author or the work to require that they are credited as the creator of the work. By removing an individual page or image from a book, you may sever the connection between the work and the author. This wouldn't apply in the case of something like an advertising plate where no author was named, but it might apply to a book containing photographs of works by a painter, illustrator or photographer. You can read a bit more about this moral right in sections 77-79 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. Note that in the UK the right to be credited in this way has to be positively asserted in the manner described in sections 77 and 78.
* Despite Brexit the Information Society Directive still remains part of UK law.
Advice or comment provided here is not and does not purport to be legal advice as defined by s.12 of Legal Services Act 2007
Thanks so much for your reply. I did some research before I embarked on this, and indeed, I was quite reassured that I understood the principle of the doctrine of exhaustion of rights (not to mention the fact that other formal businesses have been doing this kind of thing through online platforms). But discussing this with my friend made me feel a bit shaky, because they were claiming that I could only sell individual pages of books that were already out of copyright, not a recent publication, for example. Although this is not actually my goal or intention, I’m only dealing with antiques and vintage items, their argument was not making much sense to me, because I could not see how copyright could be infringed by selling a page but not by reselling the book. Ultimately, in both situations, I’m not making copies or transforming the object (the pages) into a new thing (I was not convinced that an individual page removed from the book would constitute a new object).
Indeed, you guessed, I think my friend was concerned about the moral aspect of this issue and the control that the author would lose regarding the integrity of their work. They argued that only the author could sell individual pages (if they wanted), because that aspect was very much linked to the copyright of the images within the book (our example was a recent art book about a movie), and only the author had permission to use those images, otherwise it would amount to an exploitation of the book's copyright. But in my (layperson) mind, copyright infringement had somehow to be connected to reproduction or the appropriation of a work, not the way the object itself (book or pages) is used by the book owner once they bought it legitimately, being that a recent publication or a book from the 1920s. (I think in recent publications and our example, trademarks could be an issue, but I guess that's another issue with different implications.)
Just to clarify, the last segment you mention about a work’s paternity rights; does that mean that the name of the author and their work have always to be mentioned to describe the page I’m selling? I do that anyway because that’s important from a selling point of view, otherwise, it would be difficult to sell the item, but should I also mention the publication or publishers from where that page was taken? Sometimes pages come from catalogues or a book compiling works of various artists.
Again, I really appreciate your time and advice, it means a lot, because these are complex and sometimes not very straightforward issues to grasp, it's great to have some extra reassurance.
You only need to cite the author or creator of the work where the original publication has done so. And you only need to use the author's name. There's no need to cite where it was published unless you wish to.
Advice or comment provided here is not and does not purport to be legal advice as defined by s.12 of Legal Services Act 2007
