Testing The Right To Resell Downloaded Music

David Gerard writes "A man has bought a song from Apple iTunes and has put it up for sale on eBay. "I only spent $0.99 on it but I bought the song just as legally as I would a CD, so I should be able to sell it used just as legally, right?" Does the Right of First Sale still exist?" The seller says he's seeking attention, but not to himself. Rather, he calls this "an experiment in property rights in the digital age," and promises not to keep a copy once the sale is done.

Comments

Sounds reasonable

[Brahmastra]

This is hilarious. I'd like to see how the RIAA spins this. After all, they haven't ever whined about used CDs being sold.

DRM Restriction

[Broadband]

Isn't it assumed that the DRM included in iTunes would disallow something like this even though it should be completely within the right of the purchaser/owner? I think this is another major problem with DRM technologies. They assume that the purchaser will desire to keep the media indefinately rather then sell it. Then again with the music industry already attacking used CD sales from cutting into their profit I highly doubt they'd want it any other way. What's better then forcing new copies of songs/albums to be purchased rather then continue the ability for it to exchange hands via a 3rd party at a possibly lower rate then the Music Companies would be willing to discount it to?

Resell ?

[frodo from middle ea]

An interesting point to consider is that,
Currently Apple doesn't allow download outside US, so if he is infact legally allowed to sale his bought music, then
Can he sell it outside US, at a higher price and make profit ?

Hmmm..

[BMonger]

My only hope is he doesn't ruin the iTunes music store for the rest of us somehow.

It depends on the use.

[jellomizer]

I think if he buys the song then when he sells it he deletes his copy, This would be a fair use and trading. But if he downloads the song and sells many copies or keeps the original. Then that is moving into the range of illegal. This is a different animal then file swapping because money is trading hands. So if you download one song for $1 and then sell many copies then that is easily in the realm of music piracy. But I don't think this will go to far because this opens up a can of worms for legality and starting business that is almost impossible to enforce. If this were legal they will need to provide paperwork that makes a tax audit seem like a day at the peach.

Excellent

[LLWhipist]

This is excellent and brings up quite a few legal questions.

Given that I'm not a lawyer though I'll just give my opinion (worth less than the original price of the song).

1) Unless it clearly states in the agreement made with apple, there is nothing preventing him from making this sale. He purchased the right to listen to that song in the specific format, it's his to dispose of as he chooses.

2) Making a sale for a profit in no way makes him a bad person (and he's claiming he'll be donating the money). I can't see how he could be legally required to pass this profit on to the original artist or to the supervising agency (in this case Apple who sold him the song).

3) The RIAA has nothing to do with this. As someone mentioned, they don't complain about the resale of CDs or DVDs (at this point) and there is no legal basis for them to in the future.

All and all I think this is an excellent way to bring attention to this issue. My only concern is that it will cloud the already muddy legal waters and make things more difficult for us lay folk to understand.

Cheers.

Huge profit

[MyRuger]

The high bid is currently $20.50. I'm sure that a few lawyers who want to get involved in the case will pump this bid sky high. It may be worth $20,000 to some lawyer trying to get famous. It's just speculation now, lets see what happens.

Re:Have no doubt...

[I8TheWorm]

Sadly, there's probably some truth to that. Since filesystems don't actually delete a file when you delete them, the residual bits of data would be the RIAA's biting point.

how about the right to redownload?

[asv108]

While this example does demonstrate one of the short comings of digital music services, I think a more important issue is redownloading. If an Apple iTunes music service user happens to experience a hard drive crash, they must repurchase all downloaded songs that were not backed up. That's right, even though Apple keeps track of your purchase history, and even prompts to tell you that you are buying a song that was purchased before, iTunes users must pay again for the song.

Apple Apologists argue that its the user's fault for not backing up the song immediately after downloading and that a hard crash is the same as having a CD scratched or stolen. While there are many steps a CD owner can take to prevent scratches and theft, there is very little an iTunes user can do to prevent a hard drive crash from occurring. Backups are important, but short of backing up every song the minute you download it, there is no way to prevent people from getting screwed.

Re:Article text (already slow to subscribers)

[sh00z]

Right now I've come up with a couple ways that the transfer of ownership could take place.

It's simple. I've already moved an iTunes purchase to a second computer. You just have to enter your Apple ID and password on the second Mac to authorize it. Now, here's the fun part: once somebody has your Apple ID and password, he can go hog-wild at the Apple Store online, buy anything he wants, and it will be charged to your credit card. This includes hardware and software purchases too, not just iTunes music. So, in addition to deleting the original file from his computer, the seller will first have to:

1. De-authorize his computer from iTunes (so that the song will have its full, legal ability to be authorized on three machines)
2. Copy the file to whatever media he's using for transfer
3. Delete the original
4. Cancel the credit card used to purchase the song
5. Send the song, the Apple ID and password to the buyer

Simple!