RIAA Bans Selling CDs?

[Raptor Jesus]

Now things are getting interesting. The RIAA has hated the sale of used cds forever. There is no doubt that the sale of used cds has cut into the sale of new cds. The RIAA has no problem with a cds ending up as coasters, just don't get in the way of a new sale. I guess I can appreciate both sides of the argument on simple terms.

However, things are more complicated than that.

The RIAA has taken a slightly different approach with the popularity of music downloading (both legalling and illegally). Historically, music is a piece of plastic and that's how we define a "unit" or count it as a product. I'm cool with that. The "ownership" of mp3s is way more complex.

Now the labels are saying that the plastic isn't worth a damn thing.. Okay :confused:

So where does that put us with the issue of mp3 "ownership"?

With a cd, you either own the cd or you don't. If you no longer want to own the "rights" to music, you simply sold your rights to a friend or a used music store. It was a fair system. Granted, people unhappy with an album could sell it to a person who actually wanted the album. The RIAA does lose a sale on the deal, but it makes the most sense economically. Imagine if Ford banned the sale of used Taurus and Escort cars!

The new laws do not specifically say that a cd has zero value, but they make it a mega pain in the ass for me to recoup the value in those cds. If I can't sell my cds, they have no value. If a cd has no value, why the hell should I shell out $15 for a piece of plastic?

I think bureaucracy is shooting itself in the foot.

Source 1 - http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070507-record-shops-used-cds-ihre-papieren-bitte.html

Source 2 - http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?alias=new-laws-create-second-ha

Source 3 - http://www.ecyrd.com/ButtUgly/wiki/Main_blogentry_080507_1

Quoted from - http://www.fretsonfire.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=5694;&#top

[FATAL]

When the capitalists are in power... time to download some music, the cheap way.

[Doom_Dude]

One point I would like to make is that it's not necessarily a lost sale when somebody sells a friend a CD. The price the person pays for the used CD may be low enough that the person will pay for it, but he / she would never pay the retail price. In the end a person only has so much money that they're able to / willing to spend on music. If I pay Raptor $8 dollars for a CD that doesn't mean I would buy the same CD for $10 - $20 in the store if Raptor didn't make it available to me.

[FATAL]

That is very correct. All these charts of "lost money due to piracy" are based on the idea that everyone who pirated something would've bought it otherwise. They are very far fetched.

[Nomad]

The RIAA can kiss my ass.

[blood imp]

What I'm thinking is this: Person Y buys a CD from the CD/Music store for #15 (# can represent any unit of money). Then, Person X buys that used CD from Y for #7. So in the end, Person Y got the CD, and only spent #8, as he later sold it and got some cash back. The store got #15. Person X got the CD, and only spent #7, so he saves #8. Wouldn't this be a better economic situation for everyone? Or is it more complicated? Or maybe I'm just thinking stupidly?
Although, the store would be down. Instead of getting #30 for both CDs, it only got #15 for one. Now I see what they're saying. But, as Fatal/Doom Dude said, X might not have bought the CD for the higher price. So to know the exact store losses you would have to know if people would by the CDs for the higher store price. Damn, it is complex, just not in the way RIAA thinks.

[Erpster]

I''m sure that they would love to stop people from reselling used CDs. I buy only used disks from amazon or ebay etc. I rip them to my HDD @flac, then throw them into a black hole I call my closet. It would be easy to resell them again though and keep my lossless copy. I like to have the actual CD and it's cover, lyrics, stuff, artwork, but many wouldn't care. And I guess that they can be scanned and reprinted, but I'm too lazy for all that. Used disks are cheap, buy 4 or 5 at a time and sometimes get free shipping.

[Jethro]

The RIAA can kiss my ass.
Right on. *cheers*

[Raptor Jesus]

Can I kiss your ass??

If they can do this, why not ban selling movies on DVDs? What about games too? Those can bu just as easily pirated.

[Nomad]

That's not the RIAA's jurisdiction. That'd be MPAA for movies, and who knows for the videogames industry.

[FreeLanZer]

This is why I own a roll of this (No kidding, I actually do :) ) :
http://www.jinx.com/images/products/285bgWhite.jpg

[Nomad]

You're my newest hero.

[Pieter Enis]

I like to have the actual CD and it's cover, lyrics, stuff, artwork, but many
I do too, to my friends' disliking *bliss*

I have got one remark to make: What if they did ban this and all the people who are reselling their used CD's quit buying CD's because they've gotten too expensive? As impy said, otherwise they would, in reality, pay only 8 money units for a CD worth 15, effectively sharing wealth.
Would put a good few people off though, in my opinion.

[Nomad]

If they start banning selling CDs, I'll just pirate them simple as that.

[Raptor Jesus]

You don't already? xP I do think this would increase pirating. This kind of pulls back into the whole Steam thing. Because of that program, there are huge communities (many bigger than this one) that are fully dedicated to hacking and pirating those games. Preventing just causes more illegal activities. Sort of like drug use.

Awhile back, the RIAA was cracking down on sites that distributed Guitar Tabs. This is completely idiotic, especially when the tabs are made by ear and submitted, not copied out of the bands tabulature books. Luckily, the site I go to is hosted in Russia so Communism FTW! :D

[Nomad]

You don't already? xP

No. I don't.