Federal Court: Sale of Promo CDs Is No Longer Illegal, Meaning Record Release Dates Just Got a Whole

On June 10, the federal district court of Los Angeles ruled that eBay seller Troy Augusto may legally sell promotional CDs online, despite the record company's CD warning label prohibiting him from doing so. Universal brought a suit against Augusto, accusing him of copyright infringement, and a judge ruled that the label on CDs -- usually reading something akin to: "This CD is promotional and cannot be sold to the public" -- does not function as a valid copyright license. Therefore, record companies have no legal basis to claim copyright breaches, since U.S. copyright law already states that once a title is transferred by legitimate means (e.g., label promoters mailing review copies to the press), the recipient has ownership over that title and may do with it what she or he wishes. Augusto argued that since the CDs he bought in used record stores were considered gifts to their original owners under federal law, his legal ownership entitled him to sell them on eBay, and the court agreed. (Universal intends to appeal the ruling.)

Of course, other people have certainly sold their promo CDs before this dude. Most independent record stores have bins full, and a quick search on eBay always yields at least a few copies of albums slated for release a couple of months down the line. This ruling makes it that much easier to get physical copies of an album well before its official release, but then again, who buys CDs anymore? One thing I will say about the stack of promo discs I receive each month is that they make very nice coasters. Really! The neighborhood bars are grateful that I've stopped swiping theirs. But more importantly, how will this affect record release dates? It has become less and less common for kids to visit their local record shop and pick up a new album, but even iTunes release dates still generate a fair amount of buzz. How now, record labels? It's that pesky internet again. Stay tuned...

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