Google's gone to court to file a friend-of-the-court brief in favor of an outfit named ReDigi, "an online market that facilitates the resale of digital music files."
This has long been one of the biggest taboo areas of digital content: being able to resell content you downloaded. ReDigi claims it has ways to keep the system from being abused, but naturally the record companies are deeply skeptical. Capitol Records (an arm of EMI, now Sony) was one such skeptic, and it filed suit against ReDigi last month.
So why would Google go to stump for them, when Google's selling digital music itself? It's in part because what ReDigi is being sued for overlaps with some of their own music services — the ability to stream audio from a digital locker.
Also, the larger implications of the case are massive: if the doctrine of first sale applies to digital goods, the entire landscape for same could be irrevocably altered. Is a download a piece of property only because a contract says so?
– Serdar Yegulalp