DY b’michlas kvod toruschu…..
I hope you’re being facetious 🙂
I dont hear any chiluk bet. a stipulation prior to the transaction to friends which is void . to unspoken terms during the transaction. Fact of the matter is all terms must be out spoken b’shas mechirah. They can expect you to read jackets and shmackets but halacha requires all terms to be mentioned during a transaction.
If you mean “spoken” rather than written (or printed), I don’t see why that should matter.
If you are questioning whether the buyer has a valid claim if he says he was unaware that it was a rental, that’s a possibility (I don’t know if the seller has a right to expect the buyer to read the “shmacket” or not); I am assuming that the buyer saw that it’s a rental.
Your point about the store owner and distributor being three separate parties is valid, and certainly must be considered. Factually, I believe that, at least in the case of Aderet, every artist/producer has a separate agreement, but the distributor is Aderet, which ultimately owns the CDs and they distribute them to the store.
For simplicity’s sake, let’s take a case in which someone makes a transaction at Mostly Music in Boro Park which is owned by Aderet (which I think is owned by Mendy Werdyger). The “seller” is actually Aderet, and the clerk works for Aderet. The owner of Aderet is not present for every transaction, and doesn’t want to burden the clrk to specify at each transaction whther it’s a purchase or rental. He therefore notifies the consumer by printing it on the CD jacket. i see no reason why any assumption was made that he changed his mind between the time of printing and the time of sale.
When distributed to a different store, for the rental to be in affect, either the store would have to be renting it to the consumer, subleasing it to the consumer, or merely acting as an agent of the distributor. If he in fact bought it from the distributor with no conditions attached, and then sold it to the consumer, I assume the printed rental agreement would be worthless.
Regarding treifos and milk, I’ve heard that Rav Belsky is matir (but not based on bitul; I don’t know if he also agrees to bitul), and Rav Yechezkel Roth is matir based on bitul. I am also told that the CY companies are machmir, and I agree with you that this is another legitimate reason to be machmir to buy CY products..