quoted 5 lines I guess my question's are is it truly illegal for a "Used CD" store to sell
> I guess my question's are is it truly illegal for a "Used CD" store to sell
> promo's as opposed to "cutouts" or previously owned CD's? Here's the thing
> I've been buying promo's for years from used shops so as far as I'm
> concerned I'm getting a pretty good deal but on the other hand is the
> artist/label getting screwed by this.
There's no law against selling promos; the warning labels you'll often see on
them are meant to scare people off but have no legal weight. Labels write off
the costs of doing promos and are well aware that many/most find their way
into the retail chain, either directly (label ships promos to store, which
sells them) or indirectly (label ships promos to radio station/newspaper/etc.,
intern/music editor/reviewer acquires/steals them and sells them to store for
beer money). If labels wanted to stop the sale of promos they'd need to have
specific contractual agreements with the people they send them to, which is
just too much of a hassle for anyone involved to bother.
As far as artists are concerned: labels don't pay royalities on promo copies,
so when you buy a promo you're denying the artists some (usually very small)
amount of money. I doubt that most of them care, really -- they're typically
getting screwed in much more interesting ways by their labels anyway. :-)
--
::: Lazlo (lazlo@swcp.com;
http://www.swcp.com/lazlo)
::: OnNow: Gold-stamped promo copy of Jimmy Scott's album "Dream"