Bopaboo Offers Place to Sell "Used" Digital Music... Seriously

[Rob Williams]

From our front-page news:

For as long as music has been sold, so has "used" music. Who hasn't at least once gone into a music store and looked at the hidden gems in their used section? Doesn't have to be music... could be video games, movies, anything. There's a reason flea markets are still so popular. Well, since so many things have gone digital (including all three of those things), the idea of selling them "used" is probably something that not many people have even contemplated.

Until now, maybe. Whether this is a joke or not, it's hard to tell, but online site Bopaboo (currently in a sign-up beta) has that exact idea in mind. Reading their site, you'll see messages like "Bopaboo is your place to buy and sell digital music" and "start legally selling". How exactly you "legally" sell digital music is beyond me, and it seems to be something that's confusing a lot of people. One thing's for sure, if this service ever goes public, the RIAA is sure to be knocking on their door fast.

The problem is twofold. The first problem is honesty. If you sell a track, nothing forces you to delete it from your computer... and this service sure isn't going to have a way to verify that. Such an issue could result in huge piracy. Someone could either sell lots of the same song, or people could share collections and sell that way. This sounds about as shady as AllofMP3, back in the day.

The other problem is of course the music industry. They are going to have something to say about this, regardless of whether or not they can prove it's wrong. It's not illegal to sell a CD you bought at a store, so it's very difficult to prove that digital music is any different. Realistically speaking though, you could easily sell an album and never delete it from your own computer, and that fact is where things will get sticky. This is going to be an interesting to watch. Despite it being an oddball service, I hope it actually does launch, just to see what kind of chaos ensues.

The logic behind it is that it's legal to sell on a CD you've bought - so why can't you do the same with a music file? In case you haven't spotted it yet, the difference is that when you sell a CD, you don't get to keep an identical copy of it for yourself. Which is probably a point that the record labels and their lawyers are making right now.

Source: Metro.co.uk
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[Kougar]

Choas is right, either the internet would descend into chaos with everyone selling everything from used freeware to used copies of photoshop and windows, or more likely the RIAA will latch onto this and not let go until it's well and truly dead.

I'm only guessing, but maybe when you "add" tracks to the software it actively monitors the library... and if you sell a track it deletes it from your computer? I can't imagine it working any other way, not that it works particular well in my theory either.

So so many issues.... as you say, mutliple copies, where did the copies originate from, what format are they in, bit rate, quality of encode... if I didn't know better I'd say it was just a site to lure file sharers that have vast libraries of tracks, and the site hashes the files to crosscheck them against known pirated copies, with legal suits ready to be dropped into the mail.

 

[Rob Williams]

The problem is, it's impossible to know that people are honest here. Some people will of course be, and there are people who are not that computer savvy who would no doubt follow the rules, but nothing at all would stop someone from making a duplicate of his or her entire collection prior to installing such an app. The only way to control this would be with DRM-laden files, and obviously, that's not the right route to take.

I think the RIAA is simply going to nag the website enough so that it goes poof. You are right about the extent of where this could go, though. But still, people SHOULD be able to sell used software, and at least if the media goes with it, that's some proof. Music is a far more difficult beast to tackle though.

 

[Kougar]

Selling used software via physical media is allowed, it goes on at ebay daily. It's when people attempt to sell digital software there that things are really hit and miss... but people do sell online downloads to software there.

You are exactly right, it is impossible to know. And duplicating my music library off-site would be the first thing I'd do if I had wanted to try their software. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out...

 

[Rob Williams]

Sadly, I think we know how it will play out. The only solution I can see is DRM... that way the music could actually be tracked. DRM sucks, and if we can't have it, I can't see us having this service either.

But hey, at least SOMEONE is giving it a go, just to see how things play out, heh.