17 U.S.C. § 109 — Limitations on exclusive rights: Effect of transfer of particular copy or phonorecord

(a) The first-sale rule. If you own a particular lawfully made copy or phonorecord of a copyrighted work, you — or anyone you authorize — can sell it or otherwise get rid of it, without needing the copyright owner's permission. Normally section 106(3) gives the copyright owner exclusive control over distributing copies, but this subsection overrides that once a lawful copy has been sold or transferred to an owner. There's a special, temporary exception for copies of works whose copyright was restored under section 104A (mostly certain foreign works). If those copies were made before the copyright was restored, or before certain notice was given, they can still be sold for commercial advantage — but only during a 12-month window that starts on whichever comes first: the date the Copyright Office published the notice of intent to enforce the restored copyright, or the date the copyright owner served actual notice. (b) Rental restrictions on phonorecords and computer programs. (1)(A) Unless the copyright owner of the sound recording (and, for the musical work inside it, that copyright owner too) or the copyright owner of a computer program agrees, the owner of a phonorecord, or anyone possessing a copy of a computer program, cannot rent, lease, or lend it out — or do anything like renting, leasing, or lending — for commercial advantage. This rental ban does not apply to nonprofit libraries or nonprofit educational institutions lending phonorecords for nonprofit purposes, and it doesn't stop one nonprofit educational institution from transferring a lawfully made copy of software to another one, or to its own faculty, staff, and students. (B) This rental ban also doesn't apply to a computer program built into a machine or product that can't be copied during normal use, or to a program built into a limited-purpose video-game computer. (C) Nothing here changes chapter 9 of this title (protection of semiconductor chip designs). (2)(A) A nonprofit library can lend software for nonprofit purposes if each copy carries a copyright warning that the Register of Copyrights writes by regulation. (B) The Register of Copyrights must report to Congress — within three years of the Computer Software Rental Amendments Act of 1990, and periodically afterward — on whether this library-lending rule is working, after consulting copyright owners and librarians. (3) None of this subsection changes antitrust law, which here includes the Clayton Act's definition plus section 5 of the FTC Act as it relates to unfair competition. (4) Anyone who distributes a phonorecord or software copy in violation of paragraph (1) is a copyright infringer under section 501 and faces the civil remedies in sections 502-505 — but this violation is not a crime under section 506 or subject to the criminal penalties in 18 U.S.C. § 2319. (c) Public display right. If you own a particular lawfully made copy, you — or someone you authorize — can publicly display it, directly or by projecting one image at a time, to people present where the copy is located, without needing the copyright owner's permission. (d) Limits on (a) and (c). These rights to dispose of or display a copy don't extend to someone who only rented, leased, borrowed, or otherwise got possession of the copy or phonorecord from the copyright owner without becoming its owner — unless the copyright owner authorizes it. (e) Coin-operated video games. If you own a particular lawfully made copy of an electronic audiovisual game, you can publicly perform or display it in coin-operated equipment, without needing the game's copyright owner's permission. But this exception doesn't apply to any separately authored work embodied in the game if that work's copyright owner is different from the game's copyright owner.