James Delahunty
6 Aug 2007 18:21
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are representing Troy Augusto, an eBay user taking on Universal Music Group (UMG) in court after being targeted with false claims of copyright infringement, along with the San Francisco law firm of Keker & Van Nest LLP. Augusto held online auctions with the name Roast Beast Music and specializes in sales of rare and collectible music.
Copyright law's "first sale" doctrine makes it clear that the owner of a CD is entitled to resell it without the permission of the copyright holder. Nevertheless, Universal demanded that eBay take down Augusto's auctions, claiming that CDs marked as "promotional use only" remain the property of Universal and thus can never be resold.
"When a consumer buys a CD, he gets certain rights, including the right to resell it. Universal is mistaken if it thinks that it can trump these rights simply by putting a label on a CD," said Fred von Lohmann, EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney. "Universal is trying to unilaterally rewrite copyright law to the detriment of Augusto's legitimate business and the public. Unless this effort is blocked, it could jeopardize not only sales of used CDs, but also libraries, used bookstores, and businesses that rent movies and video games."
The EFF has filed papers with the federal court in Los Angeles answering Universal's claims and counter-suing the company for sending bogus "takedown notices" to eBay that resulted in the unwarranted suspension of Augusto's auctions. The EFF also took on Universal Music Publishing Group last month on behalf of a mom who had a home video removed from YouTube because a very short snippet of a Prince song could be heard in the background.
Source:
Press Release