What Do You Get When You Buy a CD?

Wiseleo asks: "What is the full value and meaning of the entire transaction when someone exchanges money or its electronic equivalent for a new sealed CD?Notice that I am being extra careful to say that someone actually acquires anything of value in the deal. I am not claiming that anything is bought in the traditional sense either. I am in fact not claiming that any value whatsoever is procured through the transaction. Can someone actually answer this question? I would really love the RIAA to do so, and in fact, I intend to contact them for this purpose. This question is surprisingly complex. I first attempted to get it answered some 10 years ago by several music stores and they could not answer it. I guess I should have talked to attorneys, but I was a teenager clueless of such an avenue. I tried again late 90s and again I couldn't get the question answered. In other words, any 'commercial' CD that is produced by a RIAA-affiliated CD manufacturer clearly states that it is not to be loaned. If I 'buy' a CD, what am I actually paying for?"

Wiseleo adds:

• Am I paying for the CD media itself?
• Am I paying for the right to play that particular CD media?
• Am I paying for right to listen to that particular recording without relying on mass media outlets that already paid RIAA copyright holders through ASCAP?
• What happens if I own the same recording in multiple digital formats?
• What happens if a particular copyrighted material is on several of my media and comes from same master source?
• What if my media is damaged, should I not be able to request replacement?
• If I already own let's say Metallica S&M DVD set, am I legally allowed to borrow a friend's S&M CD set, since both media are mixed from the same source [and possibly covered by the same license]?
• What are the quality tolerances and who sets them? At which point is the original recording no longer subject to copy limitations? What happens if my used media is scratched?
• I am inclined to believe that the acquiring party simply acquires a license for a particular recording. It is currently implied, at least in my understanding, that the license is perpetual and as such a license holder is entitled to the ability to use the licensed object perpetually, regardless of the media it was originally supplied on or the media player of choice at the moment. If my understanding is correct, and the content is licensed to the consumer, then where is the full license agreement?
• By the [above] argument, should we not consider it to be a shrink-wrap and thus largely unenforceable EULA?
• Is it not true that shrink-wrapped software is not returnable to the retailer but it is returnable to the manufacturer upon termination of license? Should not music be under the same category?

What exactly do the RIAA's customers actually pay for? Until this question is answered, how can we possibly hope to communicate with the organization unless we know our exact terms and conditions that accompany the entire term of the transaction?"

Comments

CD EULA?

[Lead Butthead]

I suspect if the publishers get to have their ways, for every CD we purchase will come attached with a draconian EULA not unlike those of computer software EULA today.

"By opening this CD, you agreed... (insert your least favorite draconian EULA here.)"

Re:What you are paying for:

[macdaddy357]

What do you get when you buy a CD? Ripped off! The prices are outrageously inflated, and maybe you get one good song. Don't buy CDs. The people who the recording industry most wants to rip off are teens, aka children. An industry that exists to rip off children is a public nusiance.

The answer's in the definition...

[dmayle]

Think about the word. Copyright. They have it (they being the owner/distributer), you don't. Therefore they have the right to make copies of this work. They have sold you a copy of this work. You're allowed to do anything you want with it, so long as you don't copy it, because you don't have the copy right. (Unless that copying is covered under the very hazy "Fair Use"). That's it. If you lose/destroy/scratch the copy, that's your tough luck. (Which is why a backup copy is so often allowed under "Fair Use".)

Copyright law is so straightforward, that I don't understand why people don't get it. There is NO license involved whatsoever, you just aren't allowed to copy what is copyrighted. The GPL is a license that you can enter into with a party that has the copyright on a work that transfers some limited copy rights to you that are dependant on the license's conditions...

The problem with electronic distribution is that it's so ephemeral, making copies doesn't require intent, you might just accidentally copy the work if the CTRL key is pressed (on Windows) when you really just wanted to move it. Now, court cases have allowed backups, traditionally (e.g. the Sony case), and ripping/encoding can be seen as a form of backup, so no judge has had the temerity to try to outlaw this form of copying, but this is probably the greatest extent to which copyright law will be stretched...

And lest I forget, I Am Not A Lawyer

Re:What you are paying for:

[bbk]

Hmm... I view CD's with about the same conempt that I view collectable games and toys... You end up with a box of Magic/Pokemon/Yugioh cards (or figurines or Pogs or Baseball cards) which have no intrinsic value, but cost a lot for something that's worth not much more than the medium it's printed on.

Everything "collectable" is a rip off, as you've
stated, and mostly aimed at kids.

But I digress... it's more about paying $15 for something that costs $0.50 to make that keeps me from flippantly buying cd's.

Re:What you are paying for:

[erasmus_]

Yes, I completely agree, which is why I only buy things at cost. I mean, the other day I tried to buy a pair of jeans, and they were $20. I laughed because they obviously only cost like $2 to make. The people at the store tried to explain to me about things like transportation and marketing costs, the cost of researching future market trends for jeans, new designers, and products, but I just blew all that off. I mean, what possible economic sense does it make for vendors to sell something for more than the sum of what the parts cost?

So, in summary, I can't believe you have such a low user id, and yet are such a troll. CDs are not marketed as being collectable, and they're not just for kids, and comparing them with Pokemon cards is just ridiculous. As someone who uses the Internet, you should know that most cds can be had for much less than $15. DeepDiscountCD.com is your friend there.

As for the article submitter's questions, seriously, give me a break. No, you're not qualified for a free replacement if you scratch it. I should try that with my car, wreck it and then demand a free replacement because you know, I already paid for it once. And also, they came from the same source, the factory. What you're buying with a cd is a single copy of that recording - don't pirate it to people too greedy to pay for things they can for free, and don't leave it on your car's dashboard to melt. Easy.