Do copyright owners get royalties every time a piece of work is sold or resold? What about "used" books, movies, etc.?
For example,
if I bought a book, then tore out a page, could I then resell the book as a "used book with a missing page"?
Could the author sue me for "altering" his work? That appears to be what is happening here.
No, I don't think the copyright owners gets royalties every time a work is resold. See all the gazillion of used books sold and resold every day.
I have often bought used books through amazon and occasionally the seller will email me that the book has been damaged--the index pages fell out, whatever---and asks if I still want it.
I just don't see how the copyright owner's rights go on forever and ever. This property is bought and the copyright owner paid. At that point, what right do they have to control what is done to the property?
I once knew an artist who ripped up a bunch of books and incorporated the pages into a piece of "art." Is that illegal?