Mitchell goes on to say, "It was very clear that UMG had no interest in getting the CDs back. We're not treating it in any way as our property, we're just calling it our property.' " We're not reflecting them on our books as part of our personal property. We're not giving you a self-addressed, stamped envelope to return it to us when you're done. Mitchell, an attorney practicing in Washington, D.C., who is outside general counsel for the National Association of Recording Merchandisers, the trade association that advocates for the interests of brick-and-mortar and online music retailers and wholesalers, says the court rejected Universal's argument that, " 'These CDs are not to be sold because we still own them, even though we've not really done anything to suggest ownership. UMG's case hinged on proving that it still owned the promo CDs. The Supreme Court ruled that Macy's had bought copies of the book legally from a distributor and could therefore sell what was now its property for whatever it wanted. Macy & Company department store, for selling copies of a book called The Castaway for less than what Bobbs-Merrill had stipulated under its copyright notice on an inside page.
Straus - in which publisher Bobbs-Merrill brought suit against the Straus brothers, partners in the R.H. The Supreme Court case was Bobbs-Merrill Co. Supreme Court in 1908 and codified by Congress the following year.
#PROMO ONLY MUSIC VIDEO FOR FREE#
It's something that copyright holders like publishers and record labels have always despised because stuff is changing hands for free that could be generating sales.įirst Sale Doctrine was first established by the U.S. It's what allows you to borrow a book from a library. In a nutshell, First Sale means that if you legally acquire a book or recording, you can do anything you want with it except copy it - you can loan or give it to your Mom donate it to a library sell it to a friend or to a used book or record store. "First Sale is incredibly important if you believe in things like libraries and used-book stores." If the phrase makes your eyes glaze over, von Lohman was succinct in laying out why you should care: Augusto has, to his credit, stood up for his rights and said, hey, I'm entitled to sell these. For those auctions on eBay, the labels will send notices to eBay to try to stop those auctions. And it appears that major record labels - not just Universal - they object to certain promotional CDs being resold. He goes to Los Angeles-area record stores, he finds CDs that he recognizes as being collectable, valuable to a certain set of fans, picks those up and resells them on eBay for, he hopes, a profit.
"Troy Augusto makes his living basically doing the age-old thing. Freelance music critics are in a different boat. But I've been lucky enough to have a full-time job since I was 20. I haven't - nor have I ever sold a promo precisely because I was uncomfortable with the idea of benefiting financially from something that was provided gratis as part of my job. Have you ever tried to donate this crap?" "Most of what they send you is junk - they rarely send you the releases you need to write about. That doesn't include the ones he's dumped. That's good news for folks like Jim DeRogatis, who's been writing about music since 1984 and whose vast collection includes, he estimates, 10,000 promos. This week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a lower court's decision that the sale of so-called promo records - usually advance copies of new releases sent to music critics and radio stations by record labels - does NOT violate copyright laws. Look for more of these on eBay and in your local used CD store.Įver gone into a used record store and picked up a CD or LP with this stamped on the cover: "For Promotional Use Only - Not For Resale?" You wanted to buy it but you had a creepy feeling you might be participating in some kind of shady transaction - possibly even illegal.