Court Rules That Selling Promo CDs Is Perfectly Legal

from the huge-win dept

There was a big win for copyright and the concept of the first sale doctrine today, as a court has ruled that record labels cannot stop the sale of a promo CD just because it's stamped with a message that says "not for resale." We had discussed this case last summer, when it was first filed. Universal Music was trying to prevent a guy selling promo CDs on eBay. He had bought them at various music stores. Universal claimed that because the CDs were stamped with that "not for resale" message, they really retained ownership of those CDs and no one could sell them. This would go against the very concept of the first sale doctrine, and, thankfully the court agreed, trashing Universal's weak claim that just by writing a note on any piece of content, it could ignore copyright law and retain ownership of the good forever.

This is a big victory, as a loss would mean that content providers could basically create their own copyright rules for any content they sold, potentially limiting it in much greater ways than copyright already does. This ruling, coming right after the Supreme Court's ruling in the Quanta case, about a similar issue involving patents, hopefully will block companies from trying to pretend they get to retain total control over goods even after they're sold.

Filed Under: copyright, first sale, promo cds, used cds
Companies: universal music

New RIAA Argument: Throwing A Promo CD In The Garbage = Unauthorized Distribution

from the next-up:-picking-your-nose=distribution dept

Last summer, the EFF sued Universal Music Group, after UMG had eBay takedown the sales of certain CDs. The CDs were promotional CDs, purchased legitimately by a guy going to LA record stores. However, UMG claimed that the CDs, as promotional items, were still the property of Universal Music Group. The EFF charged that UMG was abusing the law, specifically by ignoring the right of first sale, which is enshrined in copyright law allowing you to resell CDs or other works that contain copyrighted material. In response, UMG has now filed a brief that says that throwing out a promotional CD is unauthorized distribution.

Effectively, UMG is saying that merely by putting some fine print on a CD, it can effectively "own" that CD forever. If the court agrees, this would have some rather stunning ramifications, effectively wiping out the first sale doctrine. Record labels could then include similar language on all CDs, not just promo CDs, and then basically create its own copyright rules, preventing any use other than what the record label decided to allow. That would seem to go against much of historical precedent (and basic common sense) surrounding copyright. Courts in the past have noted time and time again that just because you say something is true, it doesn't mean it necessarily is true. Hopefully the court will make that point once again.

Filed Under: copyright, distribution, eff, first sale, promo cds
Companies: eff, universal music