Can You Sell Your iPod With Songs On It?
from the questions,-questions... dept
NY Times reporter John Schwartz has an interesting article about how he learned so much more about a co-worker after buying the guy's iPod. There were still about 3,000 songs on the iPod, and Schwartz spent some time listening to many of them -- even discovering some bands or songs that he liked quite a bit (to the point of wanting to go out and buy the CDs himself). While it's interesting to see how listening in on someone else's iPod is a way to learn more about them, a much bigger question may be about the legality of selling an iPod with music on it. Sure, the seller can claim they're just selling the device, but considering that the recording industry freaks out if anyone shares a song for free, let alone profits from selling a song, it certainly seems like Schwartz' colleague, Kenneth Chang, has just opened himself up to a tremendous lawsuit. If the recording industry is going after people for sharing music for free, why not selling iPods full of music for just the cost of the iPod?
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No Subject Given
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Re: No Subject Given
If not then there is no problem, if the content was part of the sale then there may be but in reality there is little point in going after someone for a one off private sale.
If someone were to start selling ipods on ebay with their CD collection loaded for hundreds of dollars extra, I would expect the adds to be pulled
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Seller not responsible
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Re: No Subject Given
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Used computers have always been sold this way.
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are you 12 years old?
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You can give it away
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Re: You can give it away
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Slightly Used CD-r for sale.
The other 600 megs are taken up by a few Metallica songs, but they shouldnt get in your way.
5 dollars.
:p
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No Subject Given
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What's the difference?
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Re: No Subject Given
Um, there's nothing wrong with selling a computer with commercial software, you just have to transfer the license too, in most if not every case... the seller can't sell it and keep it and still be legal.
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WHat counts is what's in the contract:
The iTunes terms of service are relevant, see:
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/legal/policies.html .
" You shall be authorized to use the Product only for personal, non-commercial use."
That means (I think ) that if you sell your iPod, you cannot charge aextra for iTunes songs on your iPod. Otherwise the terms are pretty permissive.
Apple may quickly changes their terms to handle iPod sales. I remember a case many years ago when two NFL football tema owners swapped teams. (The owners each moved to the other's city. The players did not move.)
Both owners got spectacular tax advantages fromt his swap, as they were able to start depreciating the teams (including the players) all over again. The IRS was asked whether this was legal. Their answer was: "Don't do it again."
Why is that case relevant? Imagine a world where iPod owners routinely swap their iPods with other people, to get access to lots of new music. If I were doing these swaps, when would I need to download a new song?
- PB
http://precision-blogging.blogspot.com
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Right of first sale?
Part of the reason that computer software is licensed and not sold is to prevent the software from falling under this doctrine.
My personal view (obviously IANAL) is that, as long as the seller of the iPod did not retain any copies of any of the files, there should be no infringement issues, provided of course that that recordings were legally acquired in the first place.
I think this idea is widely accepted. I know one lawyer who bought a used iPod and came to much the same conclusion.
Here's a link I found to a law review article discussing the right of first sale as applied to digital audio recordings:
http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2001dltr0018.html
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When
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none
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