According to a federal judge, MP3 files are legal to sell if the person selling them, bought them. This is after Capitol Records wanted to shut down a used MP3 store which the record company deemed not legal to do.
Record labels have quite a stronghold over music and are very serious about people sharing that music as well as selling the music. Of course, it’s a losing battle with Millions upon Millions of people doing so, but they still try to abuse their power.
“A one-of-a-kind website enabling the online sale of preowned digital-music files got a major legal boost late Monday when a federal judge refused to shutter it at the request of Capitol Records. ReDigi, which opened in October, says it’s a modern-day, used-record store that provides account holders with a platform to buy and sell used MP3s that were purchased lawfully through iTunes. The platform’s technology does not support other digital files such as those purchased from Amazon or ripped from a CD.”
“Sullivan’s decision means that the case is still headed to trial, where Capitol will attempt to prove its allegations that ReDigi facilitates wanton copyright infringement and is not protected by the first-sale doctrine.”
Very interesting case and we’ll keep an eye on how it progresses. As many would agree, if you bought the music, then you should be able to sell it. Same as if you buy a movie, you can sell it to someone and so on.
Do you believe it should be legal to sell an MP3 if you purchased it?
If I purchase a record/record album, I can sell it with no problems, why not the same for used MP3 files. Or, was I supposed to pay someone royalties if I sold my used records.