Start-up to help people sell unwanted MP3s
This blog was updated first at 12:30 p.m. PST with some reader feedback and then at 1:40 p.m. PST to include an interview with Bopaboo's CEO.
"Stop illegally sharing, and start legally selling" is the tagline for a start-up that wants to enable music owners to sell their unwanted MP3s.
Ernesto at the blog TorrentFreak has a story about Bopaboo, which has created a digital marketplace where users operate mini download stores.
Bopaboo buyers can search for music in all the usual ways, and the site offers a seller rating to help shoppers learn a merchant's reputation. Sellers register and then are given an MP3 store, where they can upload the music they want to sell. No DRM-wrapped music is allowed, so iTunes owners like me are blocked from selling.
According to TorrentFreak, there is no limit on the number of songs that can be offered. Sellers select their own prices but, of course, must cut Bopaboo a percentage of sales.
This was an idea bound to emerge out of the craze over songs stripped of digital rights management software. People have traded DVDs, mixed tapes, and albums for decades.
Bopaboo says the site is legal, and it sounds like it should be. Don't people own their MP3s? We'll see.
UPDATE: 12:30 p.m. PT: Several of you readers have pointed out that it's going to be tough, if not impossible, to prevent people from reselling songs over and over. This sounds like a fight in the making with the music industry. I've got a few calls in, so I'll further update this post with any objections from the Recording Industry Association of America.
UPDATE: 1:40 p.m. PT: Okay, here's the juice from Bopaboo CEO Alex Meshkin, a 28-year-old who didn't go to college, doesn't know programming but once ran Toyota's Nascar team. Yes, Nascar team. He added that Bopaboo is a Washington D.C.-based company founded a year ago.
I put the most important question to him first.
Q: Why don't you think the recording industry is going to sue you into oblivion?
Meshkin: Obviously, MP3s are very easy to duplicate...It's very difficult to tell the difference between a so-called new copy and a so-called old copy...I can buy a CD and I can rip it and that behavior has basically been endorsed by the music industry. I can resell that CD on Amazon. The industry doesn't have a way to monetize physical goods being traded on the secondary market. The first-sale doctrine protects that right. In the physical world consumers have the right to resell their property and copyright owners can't do anything about that."
Okay, but there's no way that the four largest music labels are going to sit back and let you enable people to sell multiple copies of the same song. Isn't that what people will be able to do using your digital marketplace?
Meshkin: We have the technology in place to prevent you from selling a song more than one time...We take a digital fingerprint through every upload that prevents a user from uploading to our service a track more than one time. Actually we've come up with an algorithm, which is beyond what even (digital filtering company) Gracenote does with song identification.
Have you spoken to the big recording companies or the RIAA?
Talks have sped up...I will be in New York later this week for meetings. The talks so far have been positive and the labels are inclined to look at alternative business models to monetize.
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET. 
I mean if you already bought the mp3 and is reselling it, I'm not sure if I see a problem here. I sell my games and CDs to people, they are not copies or anything. But in a way I need to see some defense on both sides.. because I'm not sure..
When you buy a CD you are also not buying the copyright. You are actually buyign the right to enjoy the music on the media. You also have the right to sell that media. MP3 is no different. Amazon makes it clear that you can't resell either thorugh the TOS or Lisence. Really that means Amazon isn't selling you the media. They are renting it.
I'd rather purchase it. I like Amazon but I'm going to abandon ship when someone is willing to actually SELL me the mp3 os it's mine.
by JoyceNgo December 10, 2008 11:41 AM PST
In this case I'm not sure whether it's legal or illegal..."
From what I read on most the agreements, if you "transfer the license" of an MP3 then you are supposed to delete the file from your hard drives.
I think this site is a good idea honestly, but with the copyright Nazi's this site will be shut down in a month or less.
If I wanted to have an ilegal MP3 I'd just download it. Paying for goods that might (and most probably are) as ilegal and as good as those freely (and ilegaly) downloaded just makes no sense.
So it is a new service that's not good for the buyers (which will be few), only favors crooks and is probably ilegal in itself. And that's good?
The younger generation has some lessons to learn. Grow up and stop stealing and then blaming the victim.
1) They can't be sure an mp3 file is original,
2) They can't be sure an mp3 file hasn't been copied,
3) There's no way to guarantee that you've deleted your copy of the file after selling it. Just by uploading it, you're making a copy.
4) There's no way to prevent you from selling the same file multiple times. If they do any kind of hashing to identify it, you can just add some silence to the end or clip it somewhere to change the value.
Then again the RIAA can't do anything about that, they would have to know your doing it because first off they can't just spy on you for assuming you stole the music or are not deleting it and what not. Your innocent till proven guilty.
So yes essentially you can copy it then sell it but how would anyone know? Impossible to find out.
6) You can't be sure your mom will have cancer.
There's a lot of you can't. People shouldn't have to be questioned of their integrity. Just like you wouldn't question a company's integrity when you click yes on an EULA.
The RIAA may not be able to find out, but under current laws that is the main reason the site will have to cease operations.
Copyrights are just bad...
Selling Used Published Items. The bopaboo Service makes it possible for You to sell Used Published Items owned by You. If You sell any Used Published Item, you represent and warrant to the purchaser that your copy of the Used Published Item is a digital copy of the original work that You purchased directly from the applicable publisher or agent of the publisher or from another person who was authorized to sell that copy to You and that You have not previously sold any copies of such work. You further represent and warrant to the purchaser and to bopaboo that, upon the completion of such sale, You will delete any remaining copies of the Used Published Item that may exist in your possession, custody or control. You agree that any transaction you make is final and you agree to indemnify and defend bopaboo against any and all claims arising out of any transaction in which you are the seller as provided in Section 10 ("Indemnification") of this Agreement.
No thanks.
So this company is going to let me buy a CD, rip it, sell off all the tracks multiple times, (come on, change the song title by a letter or two or rip it at a different bit rate, lets see this "algorithm" at work) and make a huge profit? God bless America!
1. You're being granted a limited right (any media) to use for your personal entertainment, not to use then resell.
2. Without DRM, there is no way for a company to guarantee that you're not selling on the sly (keeping the MP3 and selling a copy). You could even rip your own CDs then resell them. The labels wouldn't like that, and bopaboo would get into trouble for facilitating the pirating of music.
3. In order to serve as a clearinghouse for DRM, bopaboo would have to already have signed agreements with copyright holders (RIAA). Same thing goes when you resell your software, if you buy used software, you actually have to clear it with the company that owns the rights to the software. I seriously doubt the RIAA is going to allow bopaboo to trade MP3s without DRM and without clearinghouse agreements. What, you think the labels are going to allow a resell without getting their income?
4. DRM-free means that people are already trading with each other, anyway. Somewhere on the internet, someone has their DRM-free MP3s posted. Somewhere in the world, millions of kids are trading each others' MP3s. There is no added value to bopaboo's venture.
5. MP3s are an inexpensive commodity that is only going to get cheaper.
Bopaboo is no different than the early Napster, except that Bopaboo earns a little off the top of each MP3 traded. They're going down.
I see that when people buy a digital good, they have the right to sell the digital good. Otherwise, the digital good will have no value after its use. This is bad. It means the economy can shrink faster because the digital asset will be driven to ZERO in very little time.
This is not true. You show me where I signed a license when I bought a physical CD from Wal Mart..
How on earth would they prevent the next millionaire being born by reselling a single mp3 over and over. I can just see the users now... "I swear I've got a whole stack of the CDs right here!...swear!"
I think the goal here it to rake a profit on an imaginary sale then run for the door before the RIAA arrives.
I guess those people that have Terabytes of mp3's they downloaded or got from friends and don't care to listen to the kinda of music they hate . This service is perfect for the early napster stealers, and the kazza fans.
I guess I could sell an mp3 , delete it from my hard drive , go download it again , or get another one from a friend off there ipod or there original CD , then sell it . This is service is like going to the store and buying a CD , then I have the right to make mp3's of it and sell it outside the store for my own price . this service will get shutdown quick.
For that to happen we need an aftermarket. All the better if it's an aftermarket that's does a bit to verify the legitimacy of the content being traded and sold.
I'm not using any of the songs anymore - really! ;)
LOL....
Nobody is saying let the wielder walk free. Both parties would be guilty.
Bopaboo is essentially setting up a store to fence stolen goods then make a profit. Sure, their customers "swear" that the goods aren't stolen but they have no way to be sure and the probability is very high.
"they have no way to be sure and the probability is very high." This is the same mentality when people say the earth is at the center of the universe. People like smilin doesn't understand that there are people who sell MP3 and destroy the MP3 on their machine. And perhaps the market on this site is transacted in that fashion. People like smilin make accusation based on their experience, which of course, shows his/her guilt.
When the RIAA goes after people for copyright infringement, does the RIAA shows you that they have the right to the song, that they have contract to prove, that they don't forge the document of proof ... etc. The sword has two sides. The problem with most people is that they are trained to only look at one side. Like how they are trained to rely most on their vision than all their other senses.
I'm glad I'm one of the few liberals on earth who see things differently.
Calm down...
Trying to start an argument on the internet over something so trivial makes you seem like a loser.
- by farker1 December 11, 2008 1:57 AM PST
- Who the hell is actually going to buy a "used" MP3? And what does that term mean anyway? The effort spent searching this hotch-potch collection of music coupled with the cost of buying what you're lucky enough to find will be extremely unattractive in the face of any P2P network, where the selection is breathtaking and the fees non-existent.
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- by monodesierto December 11, 2008 3:56 PM PST
- Well, if it's legal and can be had cheaper than from itunes or amazon, then sure there would be a market for this for those who choose to keep their collections RIAA-approved, er, -safe.
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