Selling Promo CDs is Now Legal
A federal court judge ruled on Friday that selling promotional CDs, even when they’re marked “not for resale” by the label, is legal. The judge rightly affirmed the fact that a company can’t throw a restriction on a product to prevent the first-sale doctrine; that is, that once one assumes ownership of a product, that person may do with it what they please.
Obviously a big victory for the consumer, it’s hard to ignore what this means for the future of the CD. Selling CDs has already become a joke… last year, Wired pointed out that to sell CDs in states like Florida and Utah, you now need to be fingerprinted and present your driver’s license. Why? Because the RIAA’s boiler is slowly exploding.
I’m curious to see how CD stores react to this. Everyone sees promos on ebay and used bins anyway, but can I really sell all these promos at the record store counter now? Is it even worth the gas money I spend driving there? I’m guessing that it’s probably not, but nonetheless, this is a good piece of news for the music industry.
