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Disney Sues Redbox, Hoping To Block Digital Movie Sales (marketwatch.com)
phalse phace writes: About 1 month ago, Redbox started selling through their kiosks slips of paper with codes on them that lets the buyer download a digital copy of a Disney movie.But Disney says that's a no-no and this week it sued Redbox in an attempt to stop the code sales. According to Marketwatch: "Walt Disney sued Redbox on Thursday in an attempt to stop the DVD rental company from selling digital copies of its movies. Privately held Redbox last month began offering consumers codes they can use to download a digital copy of a Disney movie. Redbox charges between $7.99 and $14.99 for slips of paper with the codes to download Disney films such as "Cars 3" and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." That is less than those movies cost to buy and download from Apple's iTunes Store. Redbox is only offering digital copies of Disney movies because it doesn't have a distribution arrangement with the studio and buys retail copies of its discs to rent to customers. Those retail DVDs come with digital download codes."
The code is part of the sale. It's printed on a slip included with the disc. By accepting the code when whoever I sell it to enters it, they're agreeing to that second transaction you allude to, as well.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Disney is trying to conflate Federal Copyright Law with unenforceable post purchase terms found inside the box (per US supreme court decision). Disney may not like it, but the digital code is part of what is purchased (and in fact propping up the price of Bluray discs to an extent) and is covered under the first sale principle. The sad fact is that this is really Congress fault over at least the last 14 years. The Democrat controlled congress (2006 to 2014?) did nothing to fix or clarify ownership rights or pass any kind of consumer rights bill for digital goods. Now that the Republicans control the Congress,I am pretty sure nothing will be done on that front.
I hope that Redbox also counter sues Disney for legal costs and punitive damages for filing a frivolous lawsuit that has already been decided by the supreme court... At least Redbox has the cash to bend Disney over. A lot of smaller companies would just give in because the legal battle will be expensive.
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
That's not an argument.
R buys product X.
R sells part of X to U.
D, creator of X, cries foul.
R has no agreement with D.
D has no legal claim to X once R buys X.
D has no right to interfere with transactions between R and U.
Redbox is buying the discs at retail, pulling the discs and codes, renting/selling the discs and selling the codes.
They have every right to do this under the first sale doctrine. Disney cannot impose any limitation on what Redbox does with the discs or code slips once Redbox buys them. Redbox is free to do whatever the fuck they want. Worst case, Disney will claim copyright over the code and Redbox will email a picture of the slip of paper immediately and then ship the slip of paper via snail mail for a few cents more. It's the same deal with game download / DLC / demo / etc. access codes given as bundles / swag / promos.