Sony, like any other media giant, seems to want to have it both ways, as long is it adds to the bottom line.
To artists, Sony claims that music it puts up into the iTunes store is, in fact, a sale, not a license. After all, on sales, Sony only pays artists 4.5 cents per song, whereas on licenses it would be paying them substantially more.
To consumers, though, Sony claims that iTunes purchases are licenses, not sales, which is why, it claims, you can’t be allowed to sell it to someone else, give it to someone else, etc., th way you could if it were a sale, like a CD.
Doubtless this dichotomy will all go away once Sony fixes its contract language and gets a few new laws passed. In the meantime, though, I’m delighted that they’re getting the snot sued out of them by artists like Cheap Trick and the Allman Brothers.
(via BoingBoing)