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Business News Digital
MP3 resale service going for a second launch
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 11 June 2009
That previously reported MP3 resale service, Bopaboo, has reportedly said that, after a false start late last year, it is now ready for a proper launch.
This is the service where you sell someone one of your MP3s and then promise to delete your copy. It’s based on the idea that it’s OK under copyright rules to sell on CDs you have bought to third parties, so why not MP3s?
It’s reported that Bopaboo claim to have major label support for their MP3 exchange service, but I find it really hard to believe. Even if you accept in theory that legitimate copies of digital recordings can be sold on by music fans, the whole system is open to mass abuse.
Although I think it’s set up so you can’t sell the same song twice – a bid to stop people from selling the same MP3 again and again without fulfilling the promise to delete the original – if I was to sell one copy of every MP3 I own for 25p each, that would make me some good money. And I’ve legitimately acquired all my MP3s, many people would probably be selling on digital files they didn’t actually buy in the first place.
Despite claims of record label backing, surely it can’t be long before a lawsuit follows if this service gets properly going online?
