Law students could watch their profs and other interested parties move from theory to practice this week as Professor James Grimmelmann (U-Maryland Law School) posted a petition on Change.org requesting Wolters Kluwer to alter its proposed policy to require students to return expensive hardcopy casebooks they had purchased as part of a new marketing program rather than opt to sell to sell them (either to bookstores or to other students, for example). Professor Grimmelmann pointed out that Wolters Kluwer’s policy “conflicts with the copyright first-sale rule that you own the books you buy.”

Within one day, the petition garnered nearly 330 signatures. The publisher responded that the program, Casebook Connect, was just a pilot program and had not been fully worked out. Wolters Kluwer regretted the miscommunication about how it was intended to work, and that students were certainly not forced to buy and sell books through the program. Here’s a link to Josh Blackman’s post discussing the original publisher’s policy and the changes. It includes Prof. Grimmelmann’s thoughts on the original policy and how it conflicts with the first sale doctrine.

Here is a link to the current Wolters Kluwer Casebook Connect webpage.

More here from the Chronicle of Higher Education.