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So you want to buy a used CD, do yah?  In some states that CD may be treated as if it were gun or some other controlled substance.

New laws are springing up across America that are turning your local record shop in to a pawn shop. When you buy a CD in some states you may be asked to show identification or even your fingerprint.  Some states, like Florida, are taking extreme measures by making shop owners take out a $10,000 bond on to ensure that owners treat their customers are criminals.

So why such measures?  The legistation is out there to stop the sale of counterfeit goods (as sometimes sold in pawn shops) in your local record shop.
This second-hand-goods legislation is the new trend in some states.  States like Florida, Utah, and soon Wisconsin and Rhode Island are putting bills through that force a retailer to ask for a driver’s license when you buy a CD.  Florida has gone so far as to have a “waiting period” for retails to wait until they can resell used CDs.  You may also be stuck with store credit instead of cash when trading in your CDs.
There is no particular reason why these laws are coming up now but, there is a history of retailers and the music industry that pre-dates Napster (which was also a huge “problem”) Once these types of laws become the new thing in states DVD resales will be sure to follow.

There are a few things lawmakers have decided really ought to be handled with the “care and oversight” that only the government can provide: e.g., tax collection, radioactive materials, biohazards, guns, and CDs. CDs? No, I’m not talking about financial Certificates of Deposit, though that might make more sense. I’m talking about Compact Discs.

New “pawn shop” laws are springing up across the United States that will make selling your used CDs at the local record shop something akin to getting arrested. No, you won’t spend any time in jail, but you’ll certainly feel like a criminal once the local record shop makes copies of all of your identifying information and even collects your fingerprints. Such is the state of affairs in Florida, which now has the dubious distinction of being so anal about the sale of used music CDs that record shops there are starting to get out of the business of dealing with used content because they don’t want to pay a $10,000 bond for the “right” to treat their customers like criminals.

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So you want to buy a used CD, do yah?  In some states that CD may be treated as if it were gun or some other controlled substance.

New laws are springing up across America that are turning your local record shop in to a pawn shop. When you buy a CD in some states you may be asked to show identification or even your fingerprint.  Some states, like Florida, are taking extreme measures by making shop owners take out a $10,000 bond on to ensure that owners treat their customers are criminals.

So why such measures?  The legistation is out there to stop the sale of counterfeit goods (as sometimes sold in pawn shops) in your local record shop.
This second-hand-goods legislation is the new trend in some states.  States like Florida, Utah, and soon Wisconsin and Rhode Island are putting bills through that force a retailer to ask for a driver’s license when you buy a CD.  Florida has gone so far as to have a “waiting period” for retails to wait until they can resell used CDs.  You may also be stuck with store credit instead of cash when trading in your CDs.
There is no particular reason why these laws are coming up now but, there is a history of retailers and the music industry that pre-dates Napster (which was also a huge “problem”) Once these types of laws become the new thing in states DVD resales will be sure to follow.

There are a few things lawmakers have decided really ought to be handled with the “care and oversight” that only the government can provide: e.g., tax collection, radioactive materials, biohazards, guns, and CDs. CDs? No, I’m not talking about financial Certificates of Deposit, though that might make more sense. I’m talking about Compact Discs.

New “pawn shop” laws are springing up across the United States that will make selling your used CDs at the local record shop something akin to getting arrested. No, you won’t spend any time in jail, but you’ll certainly feel like a criminal once the local record shop makes copies of all of your identifying information and even collects your fingerprints. Such is the state of affairs in Florida, which now has the dubious distinction of being so anal about the sale of used music CDs that record shops there are starting to get out of the business of dealing with used content because they don’t want to pay a $10,000 bond for the “right” to treat their customers like criminals.

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