Capitol Records building in Hollywood.
(Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET)
A court ruling has put the kibosh on reselling digital media.
In a lawsuit between Universal Music Group's Capitol Records and MP3 reseller ReDigi, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan has sided with the record label and said that reselling songs bought on iTunes, Amazon, or other digital music venues is akin to copyright infringement.
"The court grants Capitol's motion for summary judgment on its claims for ReDigi's direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement of its distribution and reproduction rights," Judge Sullivan wrote in a summary judgment filed Saturday. "The court also denies ReDigi's motion in its entirety."
ReDigi calls itself "the world's first online marketplace for used digital music." The company argued that it was operating under the "first sale doctrine," which says that people can resell or rent goods. This legal doctrine is what Netflix uses for its business model. ReDigi also noted that it's legal for people to sell used CDs and DVDs.
However, Judge Sullivan ultimately concluded that digital media can only be resold if permission is granted by the copyright owner.
"Courts have consistently held that the unauthorized duplication of digital music files... [Read more]
No comments:
Post a Comment