Remember the days of selling your old books and CDs and using the money to buy used books and used CDs? Since a used eBook or a used MP3 is pretty much the same a a new one, used digital files are hard to sell. But that hasn’t stopped companies from trying.
A company called ReDigi is letting consumers sell “used” digital media. But it doesn’t seem to be going very well. In fact, EMI is suing ReDigi, for copyright infringement.
Could it work for books? eBookNewser has more: “A couple of years ago we heard about a company called Lexink who wanted to let consumers sell ‘used’ copies of eBooks that they had already read using a tool call Unloaded. We haven’t heard much from them about that initiative since them, likely because they couldn’t get publishers to give them permission to sell perfectly good digital copies of copyrighted content. However, their website still includes a description of the Unloaded tool for reselling used MP3s and movies.”
The Lexink website explains how it works: “UNLOADER is integrated into the Media Player digital download store so once you unload a title and someone purchases it, the media vanishes from your library and you can no longer play it. You get store credit that you can redeem for other unloaded content on the resale store or brand new titles from the online store.”
Is a used eBook store doomed?