Capitol wins digital records lawsuit

[L5Larry]

Anybody read this?

 

http://news.yahoo.com/capitol-wins-digital-records-lawsuit-against-redigi-start-182753620--finance.html

 

Some pretty interesting definitions and clarifications in this U.S District Court (NY) decision.

 

The first being that the "First Sale Doctrine" is inapplicable because a digi download is not a physical "product", and therefore not something a consumer can resell after use (like an LP, CD, or DVD). The ruling stated that "Because it is therefore impossible for the user to sell her 'particular' phonorecord on ReDigi, the first sale statute cannot provide a defense."

 

And the other is that any digital media purchased from places such as Amazon, iTunes, etc (CD's, mp3's DVD's, e-books), are effectively rentals, and therefore cannot be resold by the consumer.

 

 

I'm gonna have to agree with this ruling. Makes perfect sense to me.

[Izzy]

Interesting. I know videogames are going to go this route. All VGs will be download so that places like Gamestop will be a thing of the past.

[badbluesplayer]

I guess that makes sense.

[BigKahune]

.... a digi download is not a physical "product", and therefore not something a consumer can resell after use (like an LP, CD, or DVD). ....

 

Can't imagine an argument around that logic.

 

Thanks for the heads up Larry.

 

 

.

[milod]

The question is going to stay with us, though.

 

What is a "real" product in a world of virtual reality?

 

Games are being played here. The concept of "rental" of a music or book rather than a "purchase" is almost certainly, IMHO, going to be a major question for the future. At what point will any "intellectual property" created and disseminated in a virtual reality be "sold?" Another point will potentially be "works for hire."

 

I think we're in for an interesting time when it comes to copyright law. There are just too many questions of equity for the consumer, the distributor and the creator. Then again... who is the creator? The artist? Or the entity that digitizes a work for distribution?

 

m

[lespaulj45]

When I was a young man a local FM stereo radio station in my area used to have a two hour program every Tuesday nite called "New Release Night and they would play the new releases back to back with no commercial interruption. About the same time the first stereo cassette recorders were available on the consumer market-This lasted about two years and nobody had to buy the new release records any more.One person would tape the new material and it was copied over and over by friends,and eventually the record distributors managed to get the radio show cancelled-I dont think I bought a new lp or cassette tape in that entire timeframe,because it was free,courtesy of the advent of these recorders.Lawsuits came up but as long as you werent copying the material for resale there was nothing illegal about it-in fact I still have some cassettes that I play regularly that were sourced from that radio show. Once a artist signs up with a recording company all the copyright ownership belongs to the record company and distribution company-There are a few exceptions,Like Rolling Stone Records where they owned all rights to their "product" and became very wealthy. Others signed over the writing,production and distribution to these companies and only got a small % of the proceeds-granted there is a great deal of money rolled into the studio time,recording and distribution of this music but it is a fairly short list of performers that own the whole product-I learned long ago that you have to be a businessman first and rocknroll artist second-the formula has been pretty successful!