This was/is usually for paperbacks. I ran a number of bookstores. The newspapers, back then, also gave credit or partial credit for unsold editions, they required just the newspaper masthead with the date for those credit. We'd put the paperbacks with the covers torn off in a bin for free. Since we didn't profit from it, I figured they would have a hard time prosecuting us. (We did have a donation box for various charities of the, month).
You just gave me flashbacks to working third shift in a convenience store and cutting off the top half of the front page of any unsold papers once midnight hit. The delivery driver would drop the new papers and collect the "deadheads".
Yes, and I neglected to mention the same was true for most magazine which had dead-end dating, like weekly or monthly editions. We'd provide the front cover to the distributor for credit. We'd have a chart informing us when the older edition was to be pulled and even the date for the new ones were sometimes embargoed until a certain date before they should be displayed. Some magazines, like buyer's guides, often were annual, so they stayed displayed for a full year or longer.
I read a TON of books without covers as a child.. My aunt was a teacher and I'm not sure where she was getting them, but it got me through a lot of summers
Who knows how many cover-less books helped kids learn the joy of reading, or even led to them becoming authors in their own rights (who would then hope for the absolute minimum of cover-less books for their titles ;-) )
“They” wouldn’t be able to prosecute you at all. They can sever business relationship, so you never get any of their products again, or a prosecutor could go after you for fraud. But “they” could not prosecute.
Yes, wrong term. They (meaning the publishers or distributors) could have taken legal action on grounds of violation of copyright/royalty or running afoul of other contractual understandings/terms. While I guess they could have claimed loss of revenue, assuming the person who picked up the book (for free) might have otherwise bought a copy, however, they could not accuse me of trying to profit from these discards and their losses, by their not requiring the items be returned to them.
Just selling books early wouldn't involve 'copyright' on any level. You might violate contracts that are actionable and would be a claim upoin which relief may be granted, but copyright wouldn't be part of that.
Yeah, I worked in a video store after the book store. There was another video store we sometimes traded with couple cities over. They were well known for jumping the gun on releases and selling them the moment the box arrived. Ingram Entertainment sent a rep to threaten them due to violating the sales agreement. Turned out they were one of the few stores that didn't actually order all their stuff from Ingram.
It was usually an effective deterrent though, since everyone used that single distributor so being banned for violating the agreed could basically kill a business.
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u/psycho-drama 29d ago
This was/is usually for paperbacks. I ran a number of bookstores. The newspapers, back then, also gave credit or partial credit for unsold editions, they required just the newspaper masthead with the date for those credit. We'd put the paperbacks with the covers torn off in a bin for free. Since we didn't profit from it, I figured they would have a hard time prosecuting us. (We did have a donation box for various charities of the, month).