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Judge rejects resale of iTunes songs
Wed, 3rd Apr 2013
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Digital media remains still protected under strict copyright laws, after a U.S. court ruled against the resale of songs purchased through Apple's iTunes store.

Reports from AllThingsD says U.S. district court Judge Richard Sullivan made the judgement, branding the transfer of digital music illegal under the Copyright Act.

The case refers to recording label Capitol Records' lawsuit against ReDigi, an online marketplace essentially housing "digitally used music."

Branded as the world's first pre-owned digital marketplace, the free cloud service allows user to store, stream, buy, and sell legally purchased pre-owned digital music.

Yet when denying the right to resell iTunes songs, Judge Sullivan issued a clear distinction between digital content such as MP3s and physical content such as CDs.

Noting that a transfer across ReDigi constitutes an "unauthorised duplication", Judge Sullivan referred to the sending of a single asset so that only one file exists before and after the transfers.

With damages and attorney fees still to be decided, the case acts as a strong marker for sites such as ReDigi - who hope to make a profit from essentially reselling music, a business plan clearly not welcomed in the industry.

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