So, what, under your theory, selling of any used CD is now illegal because there could be a copy out there somewhere?
The question really becomes: Can copyright holders hold buyers to the license scheme? Because you do not buy a copy of a track off of iTunes, you pay a one time fee to license a digital copy of it, which you're permitted to do various things with (including burning it to a CD in some cases.)
Does that license survive scrutiny, or is it like every other attempt to use the forced license scheme: A sales technique that has no standing in the court of law.
I think Redigi has a long road ahead of them, but I don't think they'll lose out of hand. They've attempted to do due diligence, which is far more than any used CD seller anywhere does. That example could be what tips the scales in this case.
That’s not my legal theory. I’m pointing to the physical reality. If I rip a CD and sell the original I’m still losing something, I probably ripped to a lower bit rate, and even if I didn’t I’m losing liner notes and cover art, I may have scanned those but that’s an analog process which ALWAYS loses fidelity in copying. So one way or the other by selling the original I have lost it, I now am left with a lesser copy.
If I copy an MP3 file and sell the original I’ve lost nothing, I have an exact copy of those ones and zeros. And also remember how selling of files works, really you NEVER sell the original, the “original” is that sequence of ones and zeros on your HD, when you sell that you keep the sectors, the ones and zeros get copied to somebody else’s HD, they might get deleted from yours but you still sold a COPY not the original.
Redigi will lose because they say they’re doing something they can’t. They’ll get up in court and say they make sure the original is gone and can’t be used again, and then the RIAA will bring up a rebuttal witness that will describe the dozens of different ways there are around that, and their defense will be gone. They’re attempting to leverage copy protection that everybody in the industry knows doesn’t actually work, and that will be the counter. It’s unfortunate because the idea they have isn’t a bad one, but the physical reality of how these things works and the legal reality of how they interact with copyright law will kill them.