JoeChartreuse wrote:
Aren't all MP3s copies by definition? By that I mean MP3 files on a PC, not on original factory media. In other words, if hard media isn't being sold, then any "used" mp3 would be a copy of the copy of whatever the seller has on the PC- i.e. downloaded tracks, for instance. Downloads are copies of original music to a renewable resource- they are not originals by definition.
This is one way that the Copyright Act has not really caught up with technology. An MP3 is stored on some form of media. If you want to sell that MP3, you can either sell the entire medium, or you can make a copy onto a different medium and destroy the original. Those two concepts are functionally equivalent in all the ways that have been traditionally important to copyright law, but a strict reading of the Act would probably force those to be treated very differently. I don't have a good answer for how to deal with the difference.