Virtual garage sales for used digital music are barred by court

A virtual marketplace designed to resell digital music files as if they were secondhand albums runs afoul of copyright law, the court ruled.

Purchasers of digital music files from services such as Apple Inc's iTunes cannot resell them through a virtual marketplace, an appeals court said in a ruling that recalls an era dominated by vinyl records and CDs before streaming services reshaped the music industry.

The decision, affirms a district court’s ruling that such sales infringe the exclusive rights of copyright holders. A virtual marketplace designed to resell digital music files as if they were secondhand albums runs afoul of copyright law, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in a victory for record labels.