Promotional CDs
I used to work for a newspaper,
editing a weekly entertainment supplement. As a result, I've got a stack
of movie photos and some of the promotional CDs that studios sent to me
for review. Record labels seem to believe that once they give you one
of these CDs, they still own it. Forever.
The current embodiment of this ridiculous viewpoint is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMG_Recordings,_Inc._v._Augusto
claiming he has no right to resell promotional CDs that he buys from
secondhand stores. UMG says Augusto is infringing their copyright by his
actions, even though the copyright law clearly states that this is not a
violation. It's called the First Sale Doctrine. Once a CD has been
sold, the buyer can do whatever they want with it, including resell it.
Augusto bought his copies at a secondhand store.
Logic would decree that there is no
legal issue here. Logic does not visit Universal Music. They put a
sticker on their promotional CDs that says they are "not for resale." In
their tiny minds, this supercedes the law. They tried this at the dawn
of radio by stamping albums "Not for Broadcast" so that the radio
couldn't play them. It didn't work then and it's not going to work now.
Wired has a brief article on this one,(Link doesn't work due to statue of limitations or Google's bullshit claims it's an attack site) too, which brings us to the parts I don't understand.
Universal Music's claim is that
Augusto could not have bought these CDs legitimately because the sticker
says they're not for sale. Apparently, they think Augusto has to prove
the existence of used record stores, then explain how each copy made it
from Universal's manufacturing facility to the store because no one was
supposed to sell it to a store. I think all he needs is a receipt.
The peak of absurdity comes in
response to Augusto's statement that, if he can't sell a particular CD,
he'll give it to someone or throw it away. Universal's court brief says
that "Both are unauthorized distributions."
Don't tell me I can't throw a promotional CD away. I throw away some of the ones I buy.
The mystery is why anyone would waste
the time, effort, money, as well as that of the judicial system, to file
a federal court case based on this ludicrous theory. GZ From AzOz.
In the end, they threw out Universal's lawsuit. http://www.idolator.com/395971/selling-promo-cds-is-not-copyright-infringement-woo-hoo
Universal lost again on the appeal in 2011. But then again I don't think Universal wold really won't back those promos of Another Dumb Blonde by Hoku that you see 20 copies of at your local donation store. And whatever happened to Hoku? She got tired of the Universal BS and became a mom. http://www.bustle.com/articles/32515-what-happened-to-hoku-shes-no-longer-another-dumb-blonde
