No Sale Doctrine

Karl Lenz discusses a proposal of European Digital Rights in their response to the EU Commission consultation on copyright. The proposal asks for a "use-it-or-loose-it" clause:

"13. EDRI therefore calls for a radical solution - a `use-it-or-lose-it clause' to be introduced into copyright law. If a work that has been once made commercially available, is not commercially available for three years, then it should be open to the work's original creator to resume the copyright from its current owner. If a work is not commercially available for five years, then all copyrights should expire, making it open to anyone to publish the work."

Lenz notes that German copyright law was a first mover in this area, which is not surprising for some reason. He also notes that comparable proposals have been made by himself, Lessig and Posner. Less radical, and thus maybe more effective. Read Lenz.