US court decides whether it is possible to sell used MP3 files

In the federal court of New York, the preliminary process on the claim of Capitol Records studio to ReDigi company, which has been operating since October 2011 and ends up allowing users to sell MP3 files on the site, was completed. Capitol Records studio demands to ban the resale of their songs and compensation for damage of $ 150,000 for each song.

The catch is whether MP3 files can be considered material objects.

According to the law 17 of USC 106 (3) on exclusive rights to intangible objects of copyright, no one has the right to make copies of such objects and sell them without the consent of the rightholder.

On the other hand, if MP3 files are considered material objects, they are subject to the “first sale” doctrine , exceptions to the exclusive rights to copyright objects, formulated in 17 USC 109 . ReDigi emphasizes that it does not make copies of MP3 files, but directly transfers them from the seller to the buyer, erasing the copy from its servers.
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After preliminary consideration of the case, the judge still refused to request Capitol Records to close the website ( court decision, PDF ). True, he did not clearly explain his decision and, judging by the transcript of the meeting , the judge considers the position of Capitol Records to be “stronger” in the upcoming court process.