"If I underline and strike out passages in a book I own can I sell it to a used-book store? Can they sell it to someone else? Is that "distribution"?"
The local library branch in my old town had a problem with a guy who would check out books, black out stuff he didn't like, then return them. It took a while before they were able to pin it on him. He had done it to hundreds of books over a period of time.
He got to spend six months in the county slammer, and got to buy new copies of every defaced book.
I guess he was trying to protect the other patrons from whatever it was he didn't like.
Funny!
I think I know that guy! Our church had a big used book sale, and a guy was wandering around, marking books like that and then not buying them. Well, he did end up buying them once we nabbed him. ;)
They weren't his books! No one in this thread has argued that someone should be allowed to deface someone else's property. The question is solely about one's own personal property that someone has bought and paid for.