cliche

If I buy a book or CD it appears I'm perfectly entitled to sell it on; thousands of us do it for expensive textbooks around exams so that we're not paying excessively.

A new textbook (or rather series) has come out for an exam I have in the near future. It costs £53 ($95). I'd like to buy it, but will have no use for it after the exam so would like to be able to sell it.

It's in mp3 format - downloaded from a website. No CD/other copy appears to be available.

Can I legitimately sell my copy (I'll delete it from the computer) afterwards? Would it be different if I downloaded it straight onto a DVD and sold that after?

I'm interested in the general philosophy/legality of this as well as what to do in this specific case...

__________________
I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. -- John Cage (1912 - 1992)

Baraka_Guru

Well, buying an mp3, I think, is merely buying rights. You are paying for the right to access content. You are not, however, authorized to resell those rights because you are only a user, not the rights holder. So, no, you cannot sell an mp3 or an ebook or other digital product of the like.

I could be wrong. It's been a while since I've read up on digital rights management.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

telekinetic

You could possibly put it on a thumbdrive, and then sell the thumbdrive. Legally speaking, that might still be shady though. I will inquire with my aspiring media and technology lawyer brother in law.

ironman

Yes you can, you are selling not the mp3 but your rights to it. As long as you delete the file from your computer and keep no copy of it, you are good to go. It's a simple transmission of goods.
Oh, and it's no different than selling a dvd or a cd, in both scenarios, what you sell is your license.

__________________
If I agreed with you we´d both be wrong

Cynthetiq

If there is no DRM, then maybe, the above is true somewhat. But if that's the case, then why would you delete it after you sold it? being honest?

As far as I can tell, the answer is no based on my conversations with the contracts and rights groups I work with. The rights holder licenses the buyer, but generally limits the transfer of the license only to the buyer. There is no ability for the buyer to resell his license to another party. The real answer is found when you read the EULA or TOS for receiving the download.

This is why there are specific copies for libraries and rental companies like Blockbuster and Netflix. The license for those copies are very different and reflect transfer of license for owning the rental copy and renting it. There are even provisions for selling off copies (those bargains you see after the movies are released on video and are no longer hot rentals) and then finally destroying those unsold copies. Those units must be destroyed and that doesn't mean just thrown in the trash.

aaah... the knowledge I've gained working in the legal department for a publishing company...

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

ironman

DRM stands for Digital Right Management, is nothing more than a lock to avoid unauthorized copies, MP3s are rarely crippled by DRM. And yes, you should delete just for being honest.

As far as I can tell by the PhD I have in IP, yes you can, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, obviously, those that have a direct interest in selling more copies will tell you otherwise, that doesn't mean you don't have the RIGHT to.


Those are specific licenses for libraries and rentals, as the market and price is not the same for an end user and "special users". Your license does not grant you the right to rent the mp3, only to use it in a limited way. If you want to rent it like blockbuster, you MUST acquire a license to do so, as you are obtaining a benefit from a third party intellectual work.

The knowledge I've gained after 7 years of post degree IP studies... Now, by US law I'm obligated to make this Disclaimer: ironman is a lawyer , but he's not your lawyer, and none of this is legal advice or analysis.

__________________
If I agreed with you we´d both be wrong

Cynthetiq

Thanks for making it more clear. I talk to IP lawyers all the time but they still do not say what you are saying, or at least aren't making it clear to me that there is a basic right you have like you do with a physical object.

Isn't the terms of an agreement, contract, terms of service, EULA, dictate what those rights are? Or are you saying that just because you've purchased something gives you inherent rights that are not disclosed or limited by the EULA/TOS/contract?

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

ratbastid

It entirely depends on the license you agree to when purchasing the media. It might be offered under a Creative Commons license that allows distribution, and perhaps sale, and perhaps the production of derivative works.

Not likely, though. Most likely it's distributed under a EULA that harshly limits your rights.

ironman

Thing is that EULA's are not "real contracts", so they've been proven to be unenforceable time after time in courts of law. Limiting your right to sell your legitimate license would be as ridiculous as prohibiting you to resell a car or a painting from an artist, by law the copyright holder can't limit successive sales of it's legitimately sold work.
What we have to have very clear, is that we are not selling an MP3, but a license to it.

__________________
If I agreed with you we´d both be wrong

cliche

I've had an email back from the seller: "Sorry but no"; but their EULA only refers to 'copying and selling'.

Personally I think you /should/ be able to sell an mp3 in the same way as a physical object; obviously you should delete the file otherwise you're not selling 'it' but a copy of it. (yes I appreciate it's actually a copy in both cases but at least with deletion there remain the same total number of copies in existence).

__________________
I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. -- John Cage (1912 - 1992)

ironman

Would you resell it if it was a book? Would you resell it if it was a cd or dvd? Then why wouldn't you resell the mp3? Because you are not buying something physical? Because you can keep an exact copy of it?

What you have to understand is that when you bought the mp3 or whenever you buy a cd or dvd, you're NOT buying the book, nor the music nor the sounds, what you are buying is a license to those intellectual works, problem is that the intellectual works have to be "imprinted" on some kind of medium that allows distribution and reproduction, so, the paper from a book and the cd or dvd are the "mediums" in which the author has decided to publish its work, as in this case the author has decided that it's "medium" is going to be an mp3, but the difference in mediums do not alter your rights to what is rightfully yours, the license to that intellectual work.

If you would've bought the physical book and in the back cover there was a little disclaimer stating that you can't resell that book would you obey it? why not? because you know that you have the right to do so as you are the legitimate owner of it and by principle you can do whatever you want with your property, now, as a book, a song, a tv show, a movie, etc... are Intellectual works, you are limited by law on what you can and can't do with them, by example, you can't make more copies from your copy, you can't rent it, you can't alter it, etc., what you can still do, is to sell your right to it, even though the author cries, yells and fights, why? because his rights to the copies that he sells end the moment he makes the first sale, after that he can't control the successive sells of it, it's an IP principle. The same happens with trademarks, by example, Microsoft has decided not to sell the XBOX in the UK for no other reason than they just don't want to. Nothing limits you to go to the US, buy a bunch of XBOXs and take them to the UK and resell them, and MS won't be able to limit that resell because you bought the XBOXs through an authorized distributor, there could even be an Authorized distributor in the UK and you could still do the import without any problems because the trademark owner (MS i this case) has extinguished its rights over the merchandise when they made the first sale. Both in Trademarks and Copyright this is called "exhaustion of the right ".

__________________
If I agreed with you we´d both be wrong