Spate Of New Laws To Make Life Miserable For Used CD Stores
from the that'll-fix-your-problems dept
For a long time, Ticketmaster had to defend itself against charges that it was a monopolist. After awhile, the uproar died down, but then the company turned around and embraced monopolistic practices by using politicians and the courts to go after the competition. The company claimed that it wanted to crack down on the concert ticket after-market in a bid to protect consumers from scalpers and fakes, but the company's only intention was to eliminate competitors and keep its margins high. The incident was a good demonstration of the fact that the truest monopolies are ones that are buttressed by the government. A similar story is now playing out in another aspect of the music business, as various state and local governments are stepping in to make life harder for sellers of used CDs. Under the new laws, used CD stores would have to take all kinds of security measures and apply for a special license, which would require them to post a $10,000 bond. In some places, stores would only be able to pay out store credit. Ostensibly, the new laws are all about protecting the public, with the idea that used CD stores shouldn't be accepting merchandise from thieves. But there's no doubt that these laws are essentially designed to protect sellers of new CDs and record labels, which have never liked the used CD business. While it may be true that the used CD business subtracts marginally from the market for new CDs, these issues distract from more important issues, as record labels and CD music retailers of all sorts have bigger fish to fry if they want to thrive in a changing industry.
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Next they will outlaw garage sales
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Re:
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Gee, thanks, Techdirt, you caused me to break the
You see, now I'm apparently guilty of theft, and it's your fault Techdirt!.
At the bottom of that Reuters article about selling used CDs, there is a link entitled, "Click for restrictions", which tells me, among other things:
When I followed the link to the Reuters article, my browser automatically made a complete copy and stored it on my hard drive. Do you think they would go easy on me if I just turned myself in?
Man, I am so screwed!
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Stolen CD's
This is what kids used to do for drug money at my school.
For once, an article that says "Stolen Music" actually means "Stolen Music".
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Re: Stolen CD's
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Re: Re: Stolen CD's
Wow, that last statement killed your posting. It actually makes it sound like your a proponent of legalizing currently illegal drugs. That would not be a stance to take if you want people to believe you to have credibility in a debate. Might as well have just put on a tin foil hat so the government couldn't read your brain waves...
While preventing kids stealing to sustain a drug habit is a positive goal, it would seem that the reform should come from the stores losing the product rather then the governments regulation of stolen goods. Receiving of stolen property is already illegal, but in the case of CDs, there is no way for them to know if they are legit.
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Re: Re: Re: Stolen CD's
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Stolen CD's
How has it been proven? In order for your statement to be true no one could have ever won a war...
BTW: There have been attempts to legalize currently illigal drugs, and it has never panned out well. In fact, with the increase of availability of drugs there have been significant increases in other problems. Remember, people don't steal and kill because drugs are expensive. They steal and kill because they are not free.
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Re: Stolen CD's
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Re: Stolen CD's
Reselling stolen "new cds from Walmart" would still be new cds. Perhaps you've been spending too much drug money on, well,... DRUGS.
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Truth in advertising
This kind restriction on resale of CD's and DVD's makes it clear that the members of RIAA and MPAA do not want to you to "own" it at all... just rent it with ownership remaining with the publisher/distributor.
"Intellectual property" is an oxymoron under the original intent of copyright, trademark, and patent laws.
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Bring in the dogs
Anyway, I'd lay odds that more CDs are stolen from individuals than from Walmart.
Didn't your soulmate have a CD that you really couldn't stand, so you sold it at Ameoba Records?
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Idiots
If a store reports that 5 cd's were stolen and a pawn shop received those 5 cd's the police can easily track down the stolen goods and catch the shoplifter. If someone broke into your car and stole your cd wallet, the police can more easily track them down.
This is why they want the 20 day window. Used CD stores are very similar to pawn shops, and receive a lot of stolen goods.
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Re: Idiots
For example - they ignore $500 bikes getting stolen every day around here, and those have serial numbers on them... and even more expensive bikes in larger cites. I don't see any effort to regulate the used bike shops that buy bikes for cash.
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Re: Idiots
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Re: Idiots
Are you serious? First of all, stores don't know anything has been stolen in most cases until they do inventory and notice a numbers discrepancy, which can be weekly or monthly depending on the stores. Second, how would they find the kids who sold the CDs to the shop? It's not like they take your finger prints and a DNA sample when you hock some CDs.
You are over simplifying the problem. What do you think they would do if they caught the kids? They would get a slap on the wrist and sent back out to get high and steal more CDs.
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Re: Stolen CDs
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This is the reason that I stopped buying CD's. My CD's were stolen, reported it, nothing....., So I downloaded my entire collection instead of buying them. I haven't bought a CD since.
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waste of time
The rule of first sale says that I have a legal right to resell my . Until that is repealed I see no point in enacting legislation to make things more difficult.
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I used to be part of a small shoplifting ring when I was in college but I was nearly caught twice in one week and was scared straight without getting caught. But looks like at least one judge is trying to find a way to scare/embarrass shoplifters.
Comment #8:
I think what he/she meant by the war on drugs being stupid isn't that fact getting rid of drugs is a bad idea but perhaps that for the most part the war on drugs isn't going that well.
And I can see years from now the RIAA trying buy a law that forces CD manufactures to rig a CD so that it will only play in the first CD player it plays in be it walkman, car stereo, pc or whatever.
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If a store reports that 5 cd's were stolen and a pawn shop received those 5 cd's the police can easily track down the stolen goods and catch the shoplifter. If someone broke into your car and stole your cd wallet, the police can more easily track them down.
This is why they want the 20 day window. Used CD stores are very similar to pawn shops, and receive a lot of stolen goods.
How exactly are they going to prove that those CDs are the ones that were stolen from WalMart or wherever? How do the authorities know that they didn't come out of some kids collection. "Some hopped up teenager and his gang friends just wanna smoke the marijuana so they are stealing CDs for drug money". This is the same argument as the "Save the children" arguments. Some bought and paid-for politicians are doing this to show that they are doing something. This doesn't have anything to do with a CD that gets stolen from a store. RIAA, MPAA, and the rest cry foul when they can't get your money more than once for the same item. What do I do when I just don't want a CD anymore? I take it to a used record store. I don't want in-store credit, I want to go to 7-eleven and buy some PEZ or something. I'm tired of that MC Hammer CD and I think PEZ will be a good replacement. Who is the government to interfere between a valid and legal business transaction between a record store and me? This isn't a gun that will kill someone.
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What if it's a fully-automatic assault PEZ?
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CD's Are Dying
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Stop attacking the kids..
Anyway, back to the real point of the article. I'm betting that the largest percentage of the people who sell their music to a used CD store purchased that music legally. I would love to see a study done on the subject. It would be a waste of money and prove absolutely nothing.. But hey, why not waste more time and money on small scale problems that only affect a company that makes billions ripping off musicians anyway.
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Re: Stop attacking the kids..
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Simple solution
...then, don't buy them (CDs) anymore.
You retain the "value" of the content, and no longer are subjecting yourself to "pawn shop booking" aka fingerprinting/ID databasing/background checking.(lol)
...the industry is self-destructing, - good riddance.
ps. How long before M$FT removes the "RIP feature" from WMP?
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Used CD stores help sell new CDs.
The write-up says:
I'm no economist (this is about to become obvious), but: It's my understanding that healthy markets for used goods actually help sell new stuff. I'm far more likely to take a gamble on a CD if I know I can get half my cash back if I don't like it. Even if the person I sell it to would have bought it new, it's still good for the new CD market in general: the record company makes the cash from the sale they would have had anyway, and I'm more likely to try new stuff.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Stolen CD's
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Reselling stolen "new cds from Walmart" would still be new cds. Perhaps you've been spending too much drug money on, well,... DRUGS.
It only takes a second to open up a CD and take out the mag-strip... then they aren't New CDs anymore.
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What's the real issue
Is the real issue here that some corporate attorney thinks people buy too much older stuff from used CD stores instead of the latest release of yet another American Idol singer? Are sales of new CD's so bad that the corporate attorneys want to shut down used CD's stores to help inflate sales of new CD's?
This is probably due to lack of retail space: places like Best Buy want proven sellers, so they'll give plenty of rack space to American Idol, Britney Spears, and the latest "bakd of the week". But just try to find an older Elvis or Rolling Stones CD.
Or is it because organizations like the RIAA have basically locked-down CD prices for more than 20 years. Why are CD's still in the $15.99 to $19.99 price range? (Note: I haven't bought a CD is years, so please correct me if the prices are different.)
CD players have fallen in price and so has the media (such as blank CD's with jewel cases). So why do CD's cost the same in 2007 as they did in 1981? (Cue long debate on the falling price of physical goods, but the rising cost of production *services*.)
If people are wary about a new artist, wouldn't it be better to try out the music by buying a used CD at half price? If it's no good, you've only spend half your money. If you like it, you'll go get some more CD's by the same band.
But then we're back to the earlier issue of trying to find the band's earlier CD's in the big retail store.
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Stollen CDs
--Gary
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