Huh? Reading a book is typically none of the author's exclusive rights, you I don't need a license to read it.
Nick Hockings:
That's what I thought until I tried selling a book to a secondhand book shop once. They told me the edition I had was still being sold new, so they would not be allowed to sell it. (This was a secondhand only shop.)
Probably this is part of their commercial license. Like bakers can't sell computers because they are not authorized to. It is not a matter of copyright, fair use, or whatever. It's probabily just a local rule to "prevent massive damage to the publishers". You can still resell you book, but no commercial organization is allowed to help you doing so.
I have several times seen books with notices that expressedly forbid selling them onwards, and video cassettes often carry a notice that prohibits showing them "in public" citing clubs, schools, and places of work as "in public".
That's part of copyright law. Public performance is an exclusive right of the author and you need authorization to do that. At least according to Italian law.
/alessandro, not a lawyer