As David Jack so succintly points out in I bought a CD, not a licensing agreement the music industry wants it both ways (but not in a porn way – fnar) – to license music but then not uphold those licenses on physical media. Works even better with MPAA and co. and scratched DVDs – you ‘license’ the content but if the DVD gets scratched somehow magically that ‘license’ gets revoked, without Bond or M ever getting involved.
Fine – let’s suppose I now have a licence for personal use applying to all the CDs I own. I should be able to take advantage of that. A CD I bought 10 years ago now has a scratch down the middle so that five of the 10 songs refuse to play. Luckily for me, this problem is solely with the physical medium. After all, my licence for personal use should allow me to reacquire ”my” content, especially since it is digital data and can be reproduced an unlimited number of times at virtually no cost.
”No,” cries the music industry, ”you bought a product, not a licence. You are not entitled to a free replacement, you need to buy it all over again. And when you do, you will be covered by another identical licence. Until something happens to this new physical medium.”
via Nicole Simon
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