What to do with 1,200 CDs I don't need

You do not have to physically possess the original to legally have a copy. If you originally purchased the album and then ripped it to a hard drive, made a CD-R, etc., you have a legal right to do anything you want with that original as long as it doesn't violate the license agreement. The courts basically interpret that to mean you as the consumer don't make an attempt to economically profit from your ownership of the album. This is the heart of the "fair use" argument. Giving away or even reselling the album also have not been construed as a violation of the license. If the copying and reselling as separate acts are legal, then it is hard to argue that in combination a crime has been committed. The RIAA first attacked file sharing and argued that it was directly responsible for reduced sales. They should be happy that people are buying the albums even if they do then resell them. With their track record it not unlikely that the RIAA will try to have Congress pass legislation that does make copying and then reselling illegal.

Here's another sample of what the RIAA is up to -- click here for story

BTW, I am not an attorney and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Ed - you state your case eloquently but it still doesn't wash. Maybe if we are talking about the owner of a used CD, for which the artist got nothing in the first place, but not for the owner of an original purchase CD.

"I paid for it and the artist got his fair cut."

"Yes, for *you* to listen to the tracks."

And that was the whole point of my post. Where in the supposed license agreement does it state that if I re-sell my original I must erase any copies? It doesn't because it's ludicrous. It takes no money out of anyone's pocket. Period.

As much as the music industry wants it to be treated like computer software it simply isn't a piece of computer software.

You want a real licensing agreement look at your Microsoft Windows box.

What you are advocating is essentially eliminating the used music market. How do you put that genie back in the bottle?

So we have an opinion from a non-lawyer saying what I want to do IS legal contradicting the rest of us non-lawyers who think it isn't.

Anybody got any ideas that can settle this? Onhwy66 could go sell one, notify the RIAA, and see if they file a lawsuit :>)

I'm very surprised to read what Onhwy61 just wrote. That has never been my understanding of the situation, and more research is warranted.

Regards,

Well I'm certainly no lawyer and really this is irrelevent to me personally because I don't buy/sell used CDs although when I was a cash-strapped high-schooler I regularly bought/sold used LPs.

It is an interesting philospohical question, however.

The music industry wants original purchase CDs to be treated like computer software. Problem is there is a good 60 years of legislative and legal as well as marketplace precedent which has allowed a used music market to develop.

I am wholeheartedly in favor of a computer-software-like licensing agreement applicable to ANY DIGITAL MUSIC FILES UPLOADED TO A COMPUTER OR OTHER TRANSISSION-CAPABLE DEVICE I.E. CELL-PHONE ETC.