Last year, in a sprawling post about digital music and the “first sale doctrine” — which allows consumers to re-sell lawfully aquired goods — we mentioned a “used MP3” service called ReDigi. At the time, ReDigi was just starting to feel some legal heat from Capitol Records for alleged copyright infringement.
Well, this week, a New York City federal court passed (partial) summary judgement against ReDigi [PDF], ruling that the service is liable for infringement. In doing so, the court strongly rejected ReDigi’s claims that their activities are covered under “fair use,” as well as the aforementioned first sale doctrine.
What does this matter to musicians? Well, first off, musicians are also music consumers. Second, creator compensation looks different in a used marketplace (typically nonexistent). ReDigi did supposedly hold a percentage of revenue from “used” sales in “escrow,” but it’s a bit fuzzy how this money would get to artists.
In this post, we’ll look at some of the legal factors involved in the court decision. You can tell us what you think in the comments.
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