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Court Rules Users Can't Resell Songs Bought on iTunes

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A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that users cannot legally resell songs they have purchased on iTunes, reports All Things D. The case in question is a lawsuit between Capitol Records and music startup ReDigi, which wants to create a marketplace for owners of digital music to sell their libraries.

ReDigi argued that 'first-sale doctrine' should apply to digital purchases in addition to physical ones, but the court did not accept that argument. First-sale doctrine holds that individuals are able to sell their legally purchased books or CDs to other parties.
However, here, the Court cannot of its own accord condone the wholesale application of the first sale defense to the digital sphere, particularly when Congress itself has declined to take that step. Accordingly, and for the reasons stated above, the Court GRANTS Capitol's motion for summary judgment on its claims for ReDigi's direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement of its distribution and reproduction rights. The Court also DENIES ReDigi's motion in its entirety.
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The Judge granted partial summary judgement to Capital Records, but has ordered both sides to submit a joint letter to the court by April 12, "concerning the next contemplated steps" in the case. We have uploaded Judge Richard J. Sullivan's full decision to Scribd.

Apple filed for several patents recently that suggest the company is at least considering ways for users to resell, lend or inherit digital content. The company has made no indications that it would make such a service available, however.

Article Link: Court Rules Users Can't Resell Songs Bought on iTunes
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/04/01/court-rules-users-cant-resell-songs-bought-on-itunes/
DesertEagle

DesertEagle

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Jan 10, 2012
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This sucks. Soon, one can no longer (legally) resell a CD if the record company dislikes it. Physical media or not, the content is still digital.

It better be an April Fool's joke.
 
Daremo

Daremo

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Jul 3, 2007
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What about ownership transfers in the result of death, or a mp3 music collection being willed to someone?
 
B

bdavis89

macrumors regular
Sep 10, 2009
174
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How would you resell music anyways? What's stopping you from selling file copies? I think I don't understand..
 
C

ChrisA

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Jan 5, 2006
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I wonder if this is really, in the end good or bad for the industry. For example If I buy a physical CD and I know I can sell it I might pay more for it. But knowing that a digital download will have zero resale value I'd not be willing to pay much for it.

Books too. Not just music.

Likely it hardly matters because hardly anyone resells anything.
 
2

2457282

Suspended
Dec 6, 2012
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There certainly needs to be rules, laws, policies that take the digital world into consideration. It took a while for Apple to work things out with the record companies to create the cloud and iMatch. Before then, if you lost your hard drive it was really hard to recover your music. Now the icloud works as a backup (sortof). I understand that the record companies are worried that I can resell a song but not actually delete it off my hard drive which invalidates the first sale defense. So someone needs to step in and figure this out. There is a ton of music I would love to sell if I could.
 
bbeagle

bbeagle

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Oct 19, 2010
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Digital is different from physical.

Someone paints a painting and sells it to you. Can you then take a photo of it, enlarge it, and sell that? Of course not. You bought that particular copy of the painting, and cannot reproduce it. The Artist owns it.

Someone writes a book. Can you Xerox all the pages, bind them together and then sell that? Of course not. You bought that particular copy of the book, and cannot reproduce it. The author/publisher owns it.

Now, can you sell that ONE painting to someone else, and not own it yourself anymore? Can you sell that ONE book to someone else, and not own it yourself anymore? Can you lend it out? I think you should be able to.

This is where the law needs to be straightened out.
 
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Consultant

Consultant

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Jun 27, 2007
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DesertEagle said:
This sucks. Soon, one can no longer (legally) resell a CD if the record company dislikes it. Physical media or not, the content is still digital.

It better be an April Fool's joke.
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Nope. First sales applies to physical goods, where ownership is without a doubt.

With digital, there's no way to determine whether you are only selling a copy.
 
DesertEagle

DesertEagle

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840quadra said:
My understanding was that this was clear via the license agreement we have to OK before making iTunes purchases. :confused:
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And as soon as the record companies write a clause on the CD-cover : "Reselling this item is stealing", then that's the way it will be. Hey, it's still your choice to buy it or not.
 
philr5150

philr5150

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Nov 9, 2010
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Daremo said:
What about ownership transfers in the result of death, or a mp3 music collection being willed to someone?
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Put your username and password in the will. Then whomever it is can just pretend to be you.

I'm saying this sarcastically, however I fear it may end up being (continuing to be) the only way.

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ChrisA said:
Likely it hardly matters because hardly anyone resells anything.
Click to expand...

Looked at Craigslist recently?
 
BJMRamage

BJMRamage

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Oct 2, 2007
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Digital copies would make for odd Yard Sales or School/Church/Organization Flea Markets-Bazaars. And funny to think in 25-50 years the Purple Heart (type organizations) wont have much in the way of books or CDs or Movies.

In a way it "stinks" but in a way it makes sense...I could sell a copy but keep a copy. Unless there is a form of DRM which everyone hates.
 
DesertEagle

DesertEagle

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Consultant said:
Nope. First sales applies to physical goods, where ownership is without a doubt.

With digital, there's no way to determine whether you are only selling a copy.
Click to expand...

I can copy the contents of one CD to another CD ("clone") so that nobody will be able to tell the difference between them. This is because the CDs will have identical bit patterns. Of course it's illegal to sell the copies and I wouldn't encourage anyone to do it, but my point is that it will still be hard to determine if it's original or not. And even if I do sell the original legally, I may still have an exact copy of it for illegal use.
 
rodriguise

rodriguise

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May 6, 2011
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Anyone else smell the hypocrisy in this phrase?

"...particularly when Congress itself has declined to take that step."

The courts won't listen to the people, but it will listen to the most corrupt group of politicians. Sadly, this no longer ironic.
 
Swift

Swift

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Feb 18, 2003
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Consultant said:
Nope. First sales applies to physical goods, where ownership is without a doubt.

With digital, there's no way to determine whether you are only selling a copy.
Click to expand...

Well, iTunes has no DRM, but it has your apple ID encoded in it. So, there's your first sale. You can copy it, but it will always have the e-mail address of the first buyer.
 
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