The Music Industry Still Doesn't Want Me to Buy Their Product

After my complaint about how buying digital music is in some ways harder that buying music in the real world, a few people have given me some suggestions as to how I could get my hands on the MP3s I want to buy legally.

Actually, as a longtime media junkie I already have such a system in place. Since before the Internet was as common as Brangelina on the cover of People, I've had a network of friends and relatives who will buy stuff for me and put it in the mail if I want it, and of course I do the same. If I really wanted to start stocking up on Amazon's MP3s, I'd get one of my American cohorts to buy them for me and send them on a CD.

Or rather, I would if it was legal.

See, Amazon has an end-user license agreement (EULA), which, like most EULAs, is pretty much ignored by the people who are legally bound by it. As Seattle Times columnist Brier Dudley points out, that EULA is actually pretty restrictive. Here's the two salient parts:

"2.1 License. Upon your payment of our fees for Digital Content, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Digital Content for your personal, non-commercial, entertainment use, subject to and in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. You may copy, store, transfer and burn the Digital Content only for your personal, non-commercial, entertainment use."

And in section 2.2, "You agree not to infringe the rights of the Digital Content's copyright owners and to comply with all applicable laws in your use of the Digital Content. Except as set forth in Section 2.1 above, you agree that you will not redistribute, transmit, assign, sell, broadcast, rent, share, lend, modify, adapt, edit, sub-license or otherwise transfer or use the Digital Content." (Read the entire agreement here.)

So after you agree "not to infringe the rights of the Digital Content's copyright owners and to comply with all applicable laws in your use of the Digital Content," which is a fair request, you're then required to curtail some of your existing rights. Sure, you shouldn't be able to redistribute, transmit or share the music you paid for, but shouldn't you be able to sell it or give it away if you so choose? I can sell or give away a CD I buy; why not digital versions of the same songs?

(I should note that eMusic has similar requirements, though put more succinctly in its agreement: "By enrolling in the Service, you acknowledge and agree that you have no right to provide any files obtained through the Service to any other party or through any other means. You may only make copies of any file obtained through the Service for your own personal use.")

These contracts are really a form of CYA protection for Amazon and eMusic, but that doesn't make me feel any better. As someone who has regularly crossed the border and received shipments from abroad, I'm used to my goods being opened and inspected occasionally, sometimes rather thoroughly. Do I need the headache of a music industry lawsuit? Not particularly. Until all this gets sorted out, I'll just have to spend my money elsewhere.