A U.S. Judge dided with Capitol Records in a lawsuit between the record company and music website ReDigi -- ruling that MP3s can only be resold if granted permission by copyright owners.
The ruling released over the weekend by Judge Richard Sullivan and
could have implications for resale of digital music, since ReDigi was not reselling products previously owned but was making unauthorized copies.
"Because the reproduction right is necessarily implicated when a copyrighted work is embodied in a new material object, and because digital music files must be embodied in a new material object following their transfer over the Internet, the court determines that the embodiment of a digital music file on a new hard disk is a reproduction within the meaning of the Copyright Act, " the judge wrote in the decision.
The judge said the "first sale" doctrine which can be applied to books "does not protect ReDigi's distribution of Capitol's copyrighted works."
The judge asked the parties to submit statements on an injunction and damages in the case.
ReDigi said that the judge's ruling mainly affects the service's 1.0 technology. Further iterations of its service, including 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0, were not considered by the Judge.