Nvinokur@aol.com wrote:

In a message dated 12/7/02 6:02:55 PM Eastern Standard Time, herb@eskimo.com writes:

...

If your 1998 car came with a cassette player as standard equipment and the 2003 model comes with a CD player as standard, the manufacturer doesn't have any obligation to retrofit the earlier car for free.

I don't believe that I paid mechanical rights for a cassette player

If you want to take something to court with this reasoning go ahead, but there's no way you'd win. Your argument seems based on what you want to be the case, but it's irrelevant to any of the legal precedents, as well as standard business and accounting practices. Any rights you get by buying a recording are for that particular recording of the music contained therein, not for the music in some more abstract manner. If you broke or lost an LP & wanted a replacement, you wouldn't get another one free because you've already paid for the mechanicals; you'd have to buy another disc. These rights don't expire when/if the record company releases the same recording in a different format, you still have them for the original format you purchased. If you decide to replace an LP with a CD, that's your choice, but the company's license to you for the LP hasn't expired or changed in any way. Your choice to purchase the same music in another format would be subject to another licensing agreement for the mechanicals and any other royalties. If, for some reason, a company were to implement some kind of trade-in option (cause they sure wouldn't allow you to keep the music in two formats for one licensing fee) when they changed to another recording format, you'd get a discount on the purchase of the new format, but it wouldn't be a straight trade. But since royalties aren't a large portion of the price of a recording, and you'd also be charged for processing, recording keeping, shipping/handling of the old recording, etc., I'd be surprised if such a discount were even as much as a dollar. -- Herb Levy P O Box 9369 Fort Worth, TX 76147 herb@eskimo.com