On ebay and in various web sites (e.g. www.vmspot.com), I see
compilations of music videos for sale.  These often state that the
videos themselves are freely provided by the record companies or
others for "promotional purposes".  Being such, the sellers claim that
they can redistribute them, charging a fee only for the service of
packaging them up.  For example, one ebay auction provided the
complete compilation of a famous singer's videos, which they state
were obtained freely from the official websites of the record
companies.  This particular collection was being sold for $50 to cover
the seller's effort in making the compilation.

My question is whether such claims are legitimate.  For the answer, I
am looking for websites that deal specifically with the legitimacy of
distributing music videos.  I prefer web sites that provide definitive
answers (I've found plenty of sites that give opinions on both sides
of the issue). I know that this is a copyright question and that there
are plenty of sites dealing with copyright.  I'm interested in those
sites to the degree that they deal with music videos.

There was a very similar question asked last month I think.

These people are clearly criminals or delusional or both.

All the products protected by Copyright, like the music videos, can be
freely distributed by his propietaries. When you download a music
video from a website, you're watching a video with copyright, but
free.

If you redistribute a product protected by Copyright and you are
making money with it, you're doing a criminal action.

These sellers are making money, because there are "sellers", no the
record company. Only the record company can sell the music videos.


A seller or website that have a license from the record company to
sell or distribute it, is absolutly legal. Ask for this license.