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Interesting Amazon MP3 development

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Carol Haynes:
Not sure if this is only new to the UK but I got a surprise today when I purchased a CD at Amazon.

They have added most of the CDs I have ever purchased from Amazon to my Cloud account and I can download the MP3 versions of those and also listen to them by streaming if I want.

This was new to me.

It is an interesting development because I have found it irritating that sort of things I like to purchase are often cheaper in CD format than MP3. Where is the incentive now to buy MP3s at all when purchasing CD gives you physical and digital copies?

Another question that is less obvious is what is the legal situation if you then sell the CD version you purchased? Since Amazon has added the digital content to your account presumably it belongs to you - there doesn't seem to be any way that Amazon can possibly police whether you still have the CD. Surely this will mean some people will buy the CD, download the MP3 files and then sell the CD and effectively get the music for free ???

It doesn't really affect me too much because I listen to classical music mostly and hate MP3 versions so I will be keeping all my CDs (hell I still have hundreds of vinyl records and cassette tapes that I can't bring myself to part with).

wraith808:
Same thing with DVDs.  Many DVDs come with an ultra-violet code.  Once you've added it to your online collection, what's the incentive not to re-sell the DVD?

xtabber:
Not sure I understand your concern.  The musical content is copyrighted, not the means of distribution.

If you own the CD, it is perfectly legal for you to rip the contents to MP3 (or any other format) to listen to on any digital device you own, as long as you don’t give the music away.   And if you do buy a CD, the only thing keeping you from copying or ripping it and reselling the original is your conscience anyway. 

What Amazon is doing is actually likely to encourage the sale of new CDs, which can only help the artists.

Deozaan:
What Amazon is doing is actually likely to encourage the sale of new CDs, which can only help the artists music labels.-xtabber (June 28, 2013, 04:37 PM)
--- End quote ---

FTFY. :P

Carol Haynes:
The confusion I have is that Amazon give you the MP3 version of CDs in your cloud account. As far as I can tell once you have them you are not breaking copyright by selling the CD and keeping the MP3 files.

Actually in the UK it is illegal (though unlikely to be enforced) to rip CDs to MP3. Under currently legislation copying any copyright material is forbidden for any reason - including making digital backup copies, or ripping to MP3 players. This is particularly clear where any form of copy protection is used - it is technically illegal to own software or hardware that could potentially have the capacity to break copy protection - even if that is not the intention of the software, device or owner. It is a law that assumes guilt rather than innocence - so much for the law.

Effectively Amazon's new scheme means you can buy a CD (often cheaper than MP3 versions anyway, esp. for classical music) and then legally sell the CD still sealed as new and make a profit on the deal. In the meantime Amazon have given you a copy of the album in MP3 format. Have they really thought this through? (I just checked the terms and conditions and it says nothing about the MP3s only being there for the duration of the ownership of the CD - the only condition is if you download the MP3s and then cancel the order they will charge you for the MP3 version). See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201123480

The difference with DVD and BluRay with downloadable content is that I think the license says it is for the owner of the DVD or BD - it would therefore not be the same thing. Also to get the download codes you have to open the package to you can't really sell it as new (esp. since the code, advertised on the pack, has been removed or already claimed).

Oddly I didn't ask Amazon for this service - I am not sure the copyright holders are going to be too happy with it either.

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