iTunes song up for auction on eBay

Hotelling said he isn't all that concerned about getting his money back for the Devin Vasquez remake of Frankie Smith's song "Double Dutch Bus," which cost him 99 cents. Instead, he said he's using the attempted sale to probe some thorny consumer issues stemming from commercial online music services, in particular, technology known as digital rights management that's used to prevent unauthorized copying. In that spirit, he's promised to donate anything above his purchase price to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an activist Internet legal group.

The effort has apparently resonated with online music aficionados, many of whom have expressed anger at copyright controls used by licensed Internet music services, including iTunes. With the auction set to end Sept. 9, the price on the song had gone up to $ 15,099 as of Wednesday evening.

While momentum is building for digital music distribution, legal experts said Hotelling's auction highlights the fact that there are still some kinks to be worked out.

"It underscores the fact that when you purchase digital music online today, you may be getting quite a bit less for your money than when you purchase a CD in a store," said Fred von Lohmann, a senior staff attorney at the EFF. "If you buy it in a store, it would be absolutely crystal clear that you could auction it on eBay."

By contrast, von Lohmann said it's unclear whether Hotelling's auction is legal or whether it's allowed under Apple's terms-of-service contract for iTunes Music Store sales.

"It's a little bit of a murky area," he said. "It would make a pretty interesting law school exam question."

Resale rules?
The terms-of-service contract, which is eight printed pages long, mentions little about the rules that guide the resale of songs. It does state, however, that the use of iTunes songs is for "personal, noncommercial use."

Customers are allowed to access the iTunes songs from up to three computers at one time. In addition, they can deny machines access and authorize others at will.

Hotelling said he believes it is possible for the file to be transferred over to the winner's control, although he said he would return the money if attempts to transfer the file fail.