Thinking about selling my CD collection = MP3

I'm not sure you can really say there is "no teeth" when the RIAA is out there suing people for downloading mp3s.

The legal issue, if I remember a prior thread on this correctly, is that the act of copying is either fair use or not, and today's copyright law tends to measure whether or not its fair use at the time the act is committed. Thus, making a copy of a disk you own is probably fair use. Making a copy of a disk you do not own is not. There is also the first sale doctrine that permits you to sell a CD you have legally acquired. Put those together and you may "legally" have the right to copy a CD you own and sell the original. I happen to think that if a judge was called upon to decide whether you not a person copying a 1.5K collection of CDs and then selling the originals was engaged in "fair use," s/he might find the copying was *not* fair use.

Regardless of the pure legality or illegality of the act, however, seems to me that fairness to the artist dictates not keeping a copy if you sell the original.

Yea and want about used record and CD stores? Are they breaking some law by even being in business or am I breaking some law by shopping there? I don't get any of it!

10-10-06: Edesilva
I'm not sure you can really say there is "no teeth" when the RIAA is out there suing people for downloading mp3s.

Edesilva, downloading MP3s is not the issue presented in this thread.

The issue raised here concerns a consumer ripping CDs he owns, and then being charged with a crime should someone decide to search his hardrive, find MP3s and then demand to see the original commercially produced CDs from which the files were ripped. Clearly, no law enforcement agency is going to devote resources to such a campaign.

You are breaking the law when you rip the cd and THEN sell the disc. You can rip it and keep it. It's your music you paid for. But, it's when you rip it and then sell it to someone else that it is illegal.

Regarding used cd stores: when I sell a used cd to a store, I don't own the music anymore. They can sell to someone else because it hasn't been copied. Now, does that mean used cd stores don't sell discs that have been ripped? Absolutely not. No one has any idea whether a used disc has been ripped or not. But, that alone doesn't make it legal.

10-10-06: S7horton
You are breaking the law when you rip the cd and THEN sell the disc. You can rip it and keep it. It's your music you paid for. But, it's when you rip it and then sell it to someone else that it is illegal.

Precisely, and that's why I asked the question what law enforcement agency is going to devote resources to such a campaign? How does law enforcement prove that the CDs were sold after being ripped? They're going to devote taxpayer dollars to a sting operation to catch individual sellers of CDs? Doubtful. Thus, I believe the law has no teeth as it applies to this situation.

Here's a question that pertains to the downloading issue. Let's assume someone owns no CDs and has a hard drive full of MP3s that were purchased and downloaded from iTunes. Some law enforcement agency discovers the MP3s on the person's hard drive and charges the individual with possessing illegal downloads. How does law enforcement prove the downloads were illegally obtained? How does the owner prove that the MP3s were legally purchased? Are the purchased MP3s encoded somehow to provide proof of purchase? Is the owner expected to keep receipts for the hundreds of songs he/she has downloaded?

Anyway, in Gretsch6120's situation, I believe the core of the issue regarding the decision to keep or sell his CDs is one of having the material available as back-up if his computer files or drives fail.