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Bopaboo MP3 Resale Scam
So you listen only to MP3s. You have a crate of old records in the garage, a box of half-melted 8-tracks and cassettes in the attic, and stacks of dusty CDs in the bedroom. It would be a crime to music (not to mention a total loss of your initial investment) if you just tossed them all.
There’s Craigslist or eBay or pawn shops or thrift stores or used music stores or flea markets. Those plus a little time and effort and you can make as much as ten cents on your original dollar. More like five cents, actually. But you’ve preserved the music.
But what do you do with last year’s MP3s? If you stayed away from BearShare and LimeWire and other Gnutella clients and paid real money for your MP3s, it may have suddenly struck you that you are no longer purchasing music as much as you’re renting it.
That’s right, rented music. It’s an electronic file, after all, prone to eventual destabilization. Even if you burn it to some form of vinyl disc (yes, CDs are made of vinyl as well), it’ll only end up under a layer of dust before Mom or your significant other or your ex chucks it.
Your MP3 player will eventually break or be replaced, and how many of those MP3s will make the cut and end up on your new player?
But wait – what’s this? I can re-sell my old MP3 just like an old record? Hallelujah!
Bopaboo promises to offer just such a service. Bopaboo has been in public development for most of 2008, and posts its updates at its blog site. Maybe I should use the past tense, as there hasn’t been any recent activity there.
The basics of the service involve an eBay-like forum through which you may sell your “used” MP3 files at discount rates. All of the money received will go to Bopaboo, and the seller would receive a portion of the sale in the form of a credit toward their own purchase of any MP3 file – new or used – on Bopaboo.
One problem, of course, is verification. How can Bopaboo verify that you have sold the only copy of your easily duplicated MP3 file?
Although this is just my opinion (shared no doubt by the Federal Trade Commission), Bopaboo is a MAJOR scam. An MP3 file can only be sold once before its integrity as a tangible product is compromised, as far as any reasonable person can imagine. And Bopaboo keeps ALL the money! Give me a break!
If this “service” manages to open to the public before its criminally creative founder Alex Meshkin takes his FBI perp walk, steer clear. You’ll only be making it easier for him to pay his lawyers.
Scrud Kelley
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The idea of Bopaboo was to make money from selling copies of original music and NOT share it with the artist or producers. Making money off of your art is fine. But somebody else making money from copies of copies of copies of your proprietary art is theft, however you look at it.
Scam or not the idea of a major site reselling mp3 and the concept/bi product of bringing all music to the value of nothing that bit quicker is brilliant. Lets cut to the chase. Its all free already. It will stop musicians hanging on to a model, created by failing record companies, who with all the power in the world cannot stop me copying audio before it gets to my ears. Nor can they un invent the internet. Lets move to a model of hiring all music that we consume, not owning it. Lets share the rental income between those who create the music and that possibility. Drive the industry forward via convenience.ASAP.
Private resale right principle is no longer new. You have surely had heard of some writers who hire ghostwriters to make articles for them. These writers would then claim the articles written by ghostwriters and use these as merchandise for the money to grow. Private resale rights use the same simple principle go to http://www.private-labels-empire.com Create a new product out of the existing product on the net and then resell it at a different price and different brand name. With proper use of your skill in marketing, you can have the greatest advantage of private resale right business.
You could sue him but since you are in a different country that might not be feasible. You could try filing a complaint with the U.S. Better Business Bureau:
http://www.bbb.org/online/consumer/default.aspx
although I don’t know if they handle this type of situation. It’s not a legal option but it may be a way to bring him and his company unwanted publicity. No companies that I know of want a negative BBB record.
I was wondering what happened to bobaboo and found this page after googling for the name. I’m sorry to see that this was the end result. Best of luck to you.
I have worked with Alex Meshkin and Bopaboo from July 2008 to June 2009. The initial phase went well and I was paid promptly. By the way, I worked via telecommute since I am based in Manila, Philippines. Payment was on time until February 2009. After that, he kept making excuses and alibis on the delay of the payment. He should have told me straight that he no longer have funds (if that is the case) and I should have stopped working on the project. But he kept me working for 4 months with no pay and I trusted him since he had a good track record in the beginning of the project. I haven’t heard from him for 5 months now. Last week, I posted a comment on his Facebook wall. Then he removed me from his friends list and I suppose he also deleted my wall post. He owes me $6400 ($1600 x 4 months). Is there anything that I can do? Thanks!