With copyright restriction being a prevalent issue and topic
of discussion at the Multimedia Center I thought that this article was
very interesting and relevant. As we face issues such as the
distribution and selling of digital music it is important to read about a
judges ruling on this matter.
Capitol Records, LLC v. ReDigi Inc. is an ongoing 2012 case from the United
States District Court for the Southern District of New York concerning
copyright infringement of digital music. In the case, record label,
Capitol Records,
claims copyright infringement against ReDigi, a company which allows
resale of digital music tracks originally purchased from the iTunes
store.
Why is this case different than other copyright music cases such as musics infamous battle with Napster?
According to the article "courts have consistently held that the unauthorized duplication of
digital music files over the Internet infringes a copyright owner’s
exclusive right to reproduce. However, courts have not
previously addressed whether the unauthorized transfer of a digital
music file over the Internet—where only one file exists before and after
the transfer—constitutes reproduction within the meaning of the
Copyright Act."
So, why aren't ReDigi users legally allowed to resell their MP3s if a copy of the file is never made?
When
you buy a song from iTunes it is not considered a sale but rather a
license that is extended to the customer so they can legally listen to
the song they just purchased. Because the MP3 is considered a license,
the customer is not allowed to turn around and resell this digital music
file.
Interesting, hope we don't get asked at the desk to help sell MP3!!! This is one argument in favor of buying CDs --(besides better sound quality and it's an automatic backup, and these days a lot of CD's are cheaper to buy than the iTunes price for the same album. Of course if one is buying single tracks, then it makes sense to download.
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