Entrepreneurship & Small Business

Legality of facilitating used book sales?

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  • Jun 26th, 2006 4:44 pm
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Sr. Member
May 29, 2006
661 posts
371 upvotes

Legality of facilitating used book sales?

Hi, I am looking to create an online book exchange site for used
textbooks. My profit will be driven by a fee charged to the seller for
every book that is successfully sold. Is it legal to resell used
textbooks in Canada? When you purchase a textbook, are you paying a
license for the material which would mean no resale, or would you be
free to resell it later?

Thanks for the advice!
2 replies
Deal Addict
Apr 2, 2003
1392 posts
51 upvotes
Richmond Hill
chrisuoft wrote:Hi, I am looking to create an online book exchange site for used
textbooks. My profit will be driven by a fee charged to the seller for
every book that is successfully sold. Is it legal to resell used
textbooks in Canada? When you purchase a textbook, are you paying a
license for the material which would mean no resale, or would you be
free to resell it later?

Thanks for the advice!
I don't think there would be a problem with this - they DO have used bookstores and people sell used textbooks at school publicly. Check [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=232]amazon.com[/rfdlink] as you can buy used books - see if they have textbooks as well.

Good idea btw.

Whoa - this fellow RFDr does this for FREE. http://textexchange.ca/
Deal Addict
Mar 15, 2003
1407 posts
21 upvotes
As the former owner of an online bookstore, I know of nothing that would prevent you from doing this. The book is property, you can charge a fee for reselling it.

Really the only law you need to be worried about with books is the stupid Canadian heritage act. That says you are required to buy your books from a Canadian distributor if one is available.

Think about that for a second - if you can buy the book in Canada for $50, but can get it in the US for $30, you're required to buy it from the Canadian distributor? Yep. Somehow that's protecting Canada's heritage. Thanks Sheila Copps!

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