EBay vetoes sale of iTunes download
Published: 05 Sep 2003 12:50 BST
EBay on Thursday cancelled an auction that sought to resell a music download that was purchased through Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store, saying the attempted sale violated its listing policies.
The move for now brings to an end a quirky effort to dramatise some of the less obvious effects of the music industry's shift from physical media sales to digital downloads -- in this case the still-unresolved question of whether Internet customers can resell songs they've purchased in digital form.
Web developer George Hotelling had put the song up for auction on Tuesday evening, hoping to highlight the problem.
"EBay shutting down the auction for violating its terms of service doesn't have much to do with the original question of whether people can transfer legally purchased music downloads," Hotelling said in an interview on Thursday.
Under the "First Sale" doctrine, the owner of a lawful copy of a work is allowed to sell it without the permission of the copyright owner. But such a policy could cause complications if applied to works sold only in digital form.
In launching the iTunes store in April, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs proclaimed that consumers don't want to rent music but to own it. But restrictions on resale, if they are enforced, would seem to suggest more of a rental model than an ownership model.
Apple declined to comment.
Although iTunes tracks come with copy restrictions, Hotelling said he believes he can successfully transfer the file to a third party. One extreme solution would be to hand over his account information and password to the buyer, although he said he would rather not have to resort to that method.
iTunes' terms of service are the most liberal among Internet music download services, allowing buyers to burn songs to CDs more or less freely and transfer them to Apple's iPod portable music players. In addition, iTunes customers can authorise any Macintosh computer to access their music files, although only three computers can be authorised at once.
Hotelling said he has not contacted Apple or heard from the company since seeking to auction the song, the Devin Vasquez remake of Frankie Smith's song "Double Dutch Bus."
Hotelling said he received a notice from eBay on Thursday that it was shutting down the auction for violating its downloadable media policy, which "prohibits the listing of items or products to be delivered electronically through the Internet."
He said he sent a reply to eBay seeking to have the auction reinstated, arguing that he could transfer the file in a manner that would not violate the download policy. As of late Thursday, he had not received a response, he said.
EBay did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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