Best of the Newsgroups: iTunes license

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Questions of ownership come up all the time, and your rights are often less than you think. This post by Phil stripling is a pretty good overview of licensing concerns.

From phil_stripling@cieux.zzn.com Sun Jul 20 14:54:12 2003
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From: Phil Stripling <phil_stripling@cieux.zzn.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: Do I own the CD?
Date: 20 Jul 2003 11:40:08 -0700
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Bill <wecjr1@theworld.com> writes:

> If I purchase iTunes from Apple at .99 cents a pop and put them on a CD,
> do I own the CD?  Can I sell it? Give it away? Burn it?  I could find
> nothing in Apple's FAQs on this subject.  Please forgive me it this news
> group is not appropriate for this question.

Hi, Bill,

You've asked an interesting question, and the answer is complex. The CD is
a piece of plastic with some metal that has pits on it that represent any
data you've burned to the disk. This piece of plastic is yours. You bought
it, you own it.

I am not so sure you own the data on the piece of plastic, though. I don't
think you "purchase" tunes at 99 cents a pop. (Note that you are not buying
iTunes when you download tunes.) My understanding is that you are
_licensing_ certain rights in the song. This is different than _buying_ the
piece of plastic that is the CD. Having burned the data that represent the
song to a CD that you own is something that your license allows, but
burning the song to CD does not change the terms of the license governing
your rights in the data.

(One way to think about this is that when you buy the CD, it's your piece
of plastic, no one else can own it, it's yours exclusively. When you
license a piece of music for download, it's not yours exclusively -- the
data are still there for others to license as well. It's a nonexclusive
license. You don't "own" the song. You do "own" the CD you wrote it to.)

Although Apple's Web site talks about "buying" music, it also mentions the
restrictions: "In a nutshell, you can play your music on up to three
computers, enjoy unlimited synching with your iPods, burn unlimited CDs of
individual songs, and burn unchanged playlists up to 10 times each." This
is a brief description of your license.

(The definition of license is "revocable permission." If you buy tickets to
a concert and you actually read the print, you may find it says you have a
license to attend. That means they can revoke your permission to be there
and kick you out for certain reasons. A driver's license is also revocable
permission. The state gives you revocable permission to operate a motor
vehicle on its roads. This permission is represented by another piece of
plastic that has your name, address, and probably your picture on it. The
piece of plastic is called the license, but it's just the evidence that you
have revocable permission. The card has taken on a life of its own as
government-issued photo ID and so forth, so nowadays there's more to the
piece of plastic than just evidence of having revocable permission to
operate a motor vehicle.)

I don't use iTunes, so I haven't read whatever agreement you have to click
through, but if you take the time to do so, I'm sure it will explain what
rights you obtain when you license the music. It probably will be more
accurate than the Web site in its use of terminology, too. I doubt that you
can sell the CD, since you're buyers are not interested in a used CD,
they're interested in the content, right? You _may_ be able to give it
away, but I wouldn't bet on it (what people would want is not the piece of
plastic, but the content, right?). You can destroy the CD, since it's your
exclusively owned piece of plastic. No problems with content there. :-)

I hope this is of some help and not more than you wanted to know.
-- 
Philip Stripling                | email to the replyto address is presumed
Legal Assistance on the Web     | spam and read later. email to philip@
http://www.PhilipStripling.com/ | my domain is read daily.

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