Apparently, fair use is going to hell in a hand-basket very soon. If I buy a CD and don’t want to keep it anymore, I should be able to sell it to a third-party for a considerable sum of money. According to Florida and Utah law though, you can’t do that. In fact, these two states are placing restrictions on the sale of used CDs so that you must submit plenty of identification as well as fingerprints if you want to sell CDs. To top it off, you can’t even get cash, just store credit.
According to the report, Rhode Island and Wisconsin may soon follow suit, meaning your freedom to sell your Father’s old Boston CDs could soon be hampered. This quote sums it up pretty well:
“No, you won’t spend any time in jail, but you’ll certainly feel like a criminal once the local record shop makes copies of all of your identifying information and even collects your fingerprints. Such is the state of affairs in Florida, which now has the dubious distinction of being so anal about the sale of used music CDs that record shops there are starting to get out of the business of dealing with used content because they don’t want to pay a $10,000 bond for the ‘right’ to treat their customers like criminals.”
Record shops: Used CDs? Ihre papieren, bitte! [Ars Technica via Slashdot]