Articles — promotional records

Ever picked up a record, cassette or CD labeled “For Promotional Use Only -- Not For Resale” and wondered if it’s okay to buy or sell it? The answer, as was declared in the San Francisco-area Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2011, is “yes” to both. But the road to that answer was full of twists and turns, and at many times in the past the issue was mired in a tussle between consumers and record companies. Not that some in the music industry didn’t happily reside in that grey area by selling promo copies. In a book he wrote about...