Universal Attacks First Sale Doctrine

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "In Universal Music Group v. Augusto, UMG is attacking the first sale doctrine. The issue concerns some promotional CDs that were mailed out, and later found their way to eBay. According to UMG, the stickers on the discs claiming that they still own the CD give them a legal right to control what the recipients do with them, and thus, UMG should be able to dictate terms. The EFF has filed an amicus brief countering that claim, saying that because they were sent by US mail, unrequested by the recipient, they are in fact gifts, no matter what the sticker claims. If UMG somehow wins this, I plan to send them CD of copyrighted expletives with a sticker informing them of the contractually required storage location. We discussed a similar issue with e-books a couple weeks ago."

Comments

Re:What are the long-term effects?

[sm62704]

The question on my mind is, where does Universal get these incredibly stupid lawyers, how did these incredibly stupid lawyers get their law degrees, and if someone sues me how can I ensure that the person suing me has an incredibly stupid lawyer?

Considering yesterday's story about MediaSentry's ignoring a court order, ALL the MAFIAA lawyers are dumb as a box of rocks. If they ever sued me I'd just get a local shyster (maybe the one that handled my divorce) and take the SOBs to the cleaners!