And you thought you owned that CD

One of the issues that we Impatient Sufferers are particularly interested in is media rights. As we move away from physical distribution of music, movies and books towards some sort of digital distribution system, we find ourselves in the middle of a debate about who owns that media and what consumers can do with the media they purchase.

We have seen all manner of attacks on the rights of consumers from the RIAA and MPAA. The fair use doctrine has already come under particularly heavy attack. Today, the MPAA has moved into new territory, attacking the first sale doctrine as well.

The major ideas under attack are the main exceptions to copyright law. Fair Use is the major exception to copyright law. It allows the consumer to make a backup copy of media they have legally purchased for a number of purposes. It is commonly extended to also mean the right to transfer the content between mediums. The RIAA has worked tirelessly to restrict fair use, particularly to spot the transfer of music from CD’s to computers.

First sale is the idea that when you purchase media, you also gain the right to resell it at a later day, as a used CD or DVD for instance. The RIAA is seeking to drastically change what we own when we buy our media. When you purchase an object, lets say a television, you assume you own the TV. You can sell it to someone else if you don’t need it any more or tire of it. With media the RIAA is arguing that you only buy the rights to listen to the music. They’re trying to establish you don’t have the right to transfer those rights to anyone else.

They’re beginning to make their case by declaring that it is illegal to sell purchased copies of demo cds or even to dispose of them.

In a brief filed in federal court yesterday, Universal Music Group (UMG) states that, when it comes to the millions of promotional CDs (”promo CDs”) that it has sent out to music reviewers, radio stations, DJs, and other music industry insiders, throwing them away is “an unauthorized distribution” that violates copyright law. Yes, you read that right — if you’ve ever received a promo CD from UMG, and you don’t still have it, UMG thinks you’re a pirate.

Of course, this isn’t really about demo cds, as Techdirt points out.

Effectively, UMG is saying that merely by putting some fine print on a CD, it can effectively “own” that CD forever. If the court agrees, this would have some rather stunning ramifications, effectively wiping out the first sale doctrine. Record labels could then include similar language on all CDs, not just promo CDs, and then basically create its own copyright rules, preventing any use other than what the record label decided to allow. That would seem to go against much of historical precedent (and basic common sense) surrounding copyright. Courts in the past have noted time and time again that just because you say something is true, it doesn’t mean it necessarily is true. Hopefully the court will make that point once again.

That’s right, the next step in this logic is to claim ultimate ownership of all media distributed. This would mean, for example, that a library wouldn’t really have the right to share that media with their members. You wouldn’t be able to resell that CD you’ve gotten sick of and you certainly wouldn’t be allowed to make a back up copy to play so you can save your original.