Hi everyone, I'm currently creating a site for one of my friends and on that site we are going to sell a ebook.I have a ebook with Master resell rights and i'm going to sell it.But the ebook cover is not attractive,i was thinking of changing the ebook cover but i don't have the rights to edit the ebook,i only have rights to sell it.So what i did was i searched for another ebook in the same niche and i downloaded that ebooks cover which looks attractive.Now i'm going to put the attractive ebook cover on the website and sell the other ebook without showing the original cover.The ebook cover i downloaded later has Master resell rights but i didn't buy the ebook,i just downloaded the ebook cover. Is this illegal or is it ok?
Even if it's legal, it could be seen as misleading. If you wanted to be on the safe side you could buy a few ebooks in that niche with PLR rights, then re-write them into one and design whatever cover you want, or sell the one you wrote + the one you've got MRR to.
Or you could buy a few more in the same niche as that one and make a bundle then sell that it would be easier to sell and more attractive to your intended market.
It's definitely unethical. I think with a little commons sense you already know the answer. If I saw that you had taken the cover of my book to sell yours, I would sue you for all of the money that you made. So many terms come to mind..."Bait and Switch", "Misrepresentation", "Infringement". You know you can't show the image of someone else's product to sell your own.
If you had to come on here and ask, that means something in your mind is telling you it's not right. And that something is correct. Do you have rights to use that cover from the other ebook? Not that you'll make enough off of it to really matter, but, you could look at loosing all your profits to both ebook authors.
Do you have a written copy of the copyright agreement that specifically states you are not allowed to edit the eBook? If not, then go for it, if yes, then it would technically be illegal, but you can start selling and if it sells well, contact the person who gave you master resell rights and ask for the rights to edit the book. You'll most likely pay a fee. Also, don't tell him you're making lots of money by relessing that book, or he'll increase the Edit rights fee.