From FindLaw: RIAA Demands ReDigi Stop Selling Used Digital Music:
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has a new target in its crosshairs: ReDigi, a newcomer to the digital music world. ReDigi offers users the ability to sell their “used” digital music.
Think about it this way, it’s just like selling a CD that you bought. Except you don’t physically have the CD, just whatever files you purchased from iTunes.
… At the crux of the RIAA’s allegations is the fact that owners, under the Copyright Act Section 109(a), are given permission to sell or otherwise dispose of their copy. If you analyze what ReDigi does, according to Ars Technica, it’s selling a copy of the owner’s copy.
So, let’s get this straight: you have the right to sell your copy of a song that you buy. But not a copy of the copy. And since the only way to transfer a copy of a song is by … copying it, you don’t have the right to do what you have the right to do. This is what happens when rights are defined by positive law. Then there is no guarantee that they are coherent or compatible. Or just.
Don’t forget that the industry uses the ephemeral/intermediate copies excuse to deliver a copy to the purchaser, so why can’t the same excuse be used to resell that copy to the second purchaser? If it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander.
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