DailyTech - Legal Issues Surrounding Online Music Storage

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Michael Hoffman (Blog) - September 21, 2007 12:36 PM

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7 comment(s) - last by orbity.. on Sep 23 at 10:04 PM

Official Deezer logo (Source: Deezer)

The world of online music continues to change at an extremely fast pace

We are all aware of the music programs that allow users to pay a small fee to download a track for personal use on the computer and MP3 player, but I recently went out on the hunt for a different type of service. After I wrote an article describing the power of Anywhere.fm, I noticed I mistakenly forgot to mention a couple of other competing services that I recommend DailyTech readers check out.

MP3tunes.com, mentioned by DailyTech reader ninjit, is another viable resource for users looking to store music files online for free.

While discussing Anywhere.fm with a few online friends, someone recommended I check out Deezer, a free on demand music service that allows users to search and choose which tracks are played. Even though the songs are not available for download through the site, the music catalog should keep most music listeners happy.

If you want an American equivalent of Deezer, the SeeqPod Music service is a California Bay Area company that also allows users to search and listen to a large category of music for free.

Between Anywhere.fm, Deezer and SeeqPod, I no longer have trouble finding decent music that I actually want to listen to while working on the computer.

Are you worried about legal ramifications against online file locker services? I contacted the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization aimed at "defending freedom in the digital world," hoping to get a brief view of basic legal rights that users have.

The topic of users being safe from possible lawsuits is a hard topic to discuss, but "users are pretty safe," according to Fred von Lohmann, EFF senior staff attorney. "It'd be a long shot" to see the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) or other copyright holders attempt to take legal action against users.

I actually believe the RIAA is more likely to continue sending letters out to users uploading music rather than users of online music lockers.

Considering the amount of concern expressed over possible copyright violations from DailyTech readers in the past, I plan to contact several other attorneys and organizations involved in copyright infringement cases.

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Awesome

By R Nilla on 9/21/2007 12:53:17 PM , Rating: 2

Thanks for sharing, I'm checking out Deezer right now. I was just thinking how nice it would be to have a service like this.

Pandora and Last.fm are great, but sometimes I want to listen to music that I know I actually like. Winamp Remote (Orb) is cool too, as it lets you stream your music over the web, but sometimes it is just too much of a hassle.

RE: Awesome

By Missing Ghost on 9/21/2007 7:54:32 PM , Rating: 2

I don't know for you, but here Pandora is dead now...

Parent

have u tried http://www.esnips.com/

By indianpunk on 9/21/2007 2:34:18 PM , Rating: 3

http://www.esnips.com/
i kinda loved this site it lets u stream and download files uploaded by other members but i then i guess its not legally approved by any agency

This is just...

By rbuszka on 9/21/2007 5:12:46 PM , Rating: 3

This is just one step closer to a totally subscription model of music purchasing - you'll purchase music (still at $1/track) and have a digital copy automatically delivered to your 'digital locker' account. Finally, the RIAA can get rid of pesky physical media (along with any semblance of 'fair use') altogether!

These people won't be satisfied until they get us paying a monthly payment to breathe the air around us.

Radio?

By Spivonious on 9/21/2007 12:50:50 PM , Rating: 2

These services sound a lot like a radio station in which the listener chooses what to listen to. I wonder if they're covered under the same regulations?

I used to use a service like that...

By TomCorelis

(blog) on 9/21/2007 4:31:33 PM , Rating: 2

I used to use a service like that, years and years ago. They offered a colossal 5gb of space, but my connection was so slow it made it hard to upload significant quantities of music. Now, my collection is so large, and my tastes so broad, that it doesnt even fit on my 60gb iPod, let alone some online storage service... if it took two days to recompress and reupload the collection to the iPod, how long would it take to move a significant amount of music to one of these lockers? I think these sites have limited appeal until they can solve the bandwidth problem and seamlessly mirror your offline media...

Also check out MediaMaster.com

By orbity on 9/23/2007 10:04:20 PM , Rating: 2

I have been working with this company called MediaMaster, which has similar features but all the music that you upload is automatically checked that is is DRM-free. Once you've uploaded music you can also make a radio station and publish a widget so others can listen. They just released a slick new Yahoo widget which you can check out here.
http://widgets.yahoo.com/gallery/view.php?widget=4...
And go to www.mediamaster.com