Selling CDs and Copyright Question

Factual Questions
1

I was having a discussion with a friend and I wanted to see if he was right in thinking this way

I have CDs and I said, I made copies of the CDs for myself and now I’ll sell the CDs to a used CD store.

He said “that is wrong and illegal,”

I told him, no I wasn’t selling the COPIES, I’d keep the copy for myself and sell the original CD to the store.

He said no it’s still copyright infringment. His line of reasoning is as follows…

When you buy the originals, you own only the CDs, not the music on them. However you have the right to use that music for your personal use.

You may copy the music to other CDs, your MP3 player, etc. for your own use, not for resale.

If you copy the CDs, and sell the originals, you no longer have any rights to use the music on the copies you made.

If you sell the original CDs, the copies you kept are in violation of the copyright
laws.

Now I know I’d not be prosecuted but is this line of thinking valid? I never thought of it this way before

2

I believe your friend is correct.
We have some copyright experts around here that should show up shortly with the real scoop.

3

He may be right since you’re profiting by retaining the music and selling the CD.

4

[QUOTE=ernesto]
Now I know I’d not be prosecuted but is this line of thinking valid? I never thought of it this way before
[/QUOTE]

Yes, it’s completely valid reasoning. If you bought software, installed it on your computer then resold the original CDs you’d be doing the same thing. It’s just as wrong.

5

You have no right to make copies of a CD. You can do whatever you want with the CD except make copies. That does including copying onto your computer or MP3 player, but, as a practical matter, no one is going to sue you for that.

The violation isn’t selling the original CD; it’s making a copy of it.

6

Did you make the copies onto *music * CD-Rs?

7

Here is a previous thread where we talked about this, btw: Can I legally copy my music then sell the originals?

8

Any copy must be destroyed or go to the person that owns the cd. You have illegal songs at this point.