04/01, 5:02pm
Court rejects first-sale-doctrine defense
A federal judge has ruled against digital music reseller ReDigi, describing the company's business model as a form of copyright infringement. The decision, which was posted by Wired (PDF), rejects ReDigi's claims of protection under the first-sale doctrine, as initial buyers can simply make a duplicate copy of a digital track before offering it for sale through the resale system.
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02/07, 12:30pm
ReDigi wins initial injunction case
ReDigi, a company that wants to sell 'used' digital music, has successfully dodged a preliminary injunction filed by EMI last month. Capitol Records, who owns EMI, argued that the service would infringe copyrights as there would be no guarantee that the seller would delete the copy of the digital track being sold. The US district judge in charge of the case, Richard Sullivan, ruled (PDF) for ReDigi, but did state the case raised a number of technological and statutory issues.
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01/07, 8:20pm
EMI accuses ReDigi of music piracy
Music label EMI is now known to have sued fledgling service ReDigi for its strategy of reselling downloadable songs. New details obtained by CNET showed that EMI unusually didn't object to the doctrine of first sale, which only lets a seller collect income with the initial purchase, but rather the origins of the MP3s and other music. ReDigi isn't selling the music from paid sources like iTunes, EMI said, and by extension isn't selling legal copies.
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11/15, 10:25pm
Trade group demands access to sales records
The Recording Industry Association of America has sent a cease-and-desist letter to ReDigi, threatening to sue the company over its marketplace for "used" digital tracks. The trade group demands that ReDigi shutter its operations, erase references to RIAA member artists from its site, "quarantine" current digital copies and provide access to sales records.
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