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From the Shifted Librarian comes news that Apple has commented on the right of first sale issues with iTunes files. Among other things Apple’s Lowe said that since iTunes is selling the songs for 99 cents he doesn’t see any market for resold music. Apple doesn’t consider right of first sale an issue, that it is impractical, though perhaps within someone’s rights. Of course this doesn’t, from my understanding, in any way resolve the legal issue. Lowe and Apple nicely (although not subtly), sidestepped actually giving their blessing to resale, appearing to defer to the markets and the courts. As far as the market that Lowe and Apple don’t see for resold songs… have you folks looked at Amazon.com Marketplace lately?
There are hundreds of thousands of books up there that originally retailed (and some that are still available new in print from Amazon) for $15 – $50 that are selling in like new condition for $1 – $3. Of course a digital AAC music file doesn’t suffer from dust and shelf wear like a book does, I would gladly pay 25–50 cents for a resold track. It saves me 50–75% over getting it “new”, and there is absolutely no difference between the “used” and “new” files. I think there is indeed a market.