Copyright law struggles to provide a coherent framework for analyzing personal uses. Although there is widespread agreement that at least some such uses are non-infringing, the doctrinal basis for that conclusion remains unclear. In particular, the prevailing explanations of fair use and implied...

If you buy a book at the bookstore, you own it. You can take it home, scribble in the margins, put in on the shelf, lend it to a friend, sell it at a garage sale. But is the same thing true for the ebooks or other digital goods you buy? Retailers and copyright holders argue that you don't own...

The first sale doctrine has long provided that legitimate owners of non-infringing copies of copyrighted works may use and sell their copies as they see fit — just as all property owners may generally use and alienate their property. In keeping with that rationale, the doctrine traditionally...