EMI is suing mp3tunes.com, a service that allows one to store their mp3 files online, and stream them via a web page. There is no sharing of files with other users (short of sharing your username and password).
Obviously, that article is clearly against EMI, but good luck finding one on the web that isn’t.
From legal and ethical standpoints, is EMI justified?
I don’t know a lot about the legal points, so I can share no opinion there. But ethically, I cannot see any reason for them to be against this. Surely there’s enough actual piracy that results in lost sales to keep their legal department busy? Under what circumstances does this service result in lost sales for EMI? People only buying one copy of an album, instead of two, one for home and one from work? Is this a significant source of income for them?
Did they just see the letters “mp3” and reflexively sue?
But there is sharing of your files with the website, and the website is sharing them back to you.
It’s one thing if you rip a CD you own to your own computer and MP3 player, which presumably is fair use. However, what is at issue here is uploading the files to a separate commercial website, and then having that website stream the files over the internet. That’s the legal difference I see.
If I box up my CDs, and give them to a moving company to move to Texas for me, is it fair use?
If I hire a kid to come in and act like a CD changer for me, is it fair use?
The company doesn’t care about the music, they’re just acting as a transporter of your goods.
My friend has a commercial website hosted on a server with a large hard drive.
If I create a private, password-protected directory on it and uploaded 500 MP3s I bought on Amazon to that server so I can stream them when I’m on vacation, away from my main PC. My friend doesn’t have the password to access my private folder and the mp3s therein, he doesn’t give a damn about my crappy music anyways. Should he be sued? For what?
What if I was the server’s owner, should I be sued? Nobody can download or stream my music so where is the harm?
Ok, so what if I didn’t own any server, and installed TVersity on my computer, which is connected to the internet.
If I stream my music to my PS3 downstairs over my home network, Should I be sued?
What if I streamed my music to my iPhone, over the internet, still via TVersity, should I be sued?
Another similar scenario is using the Winamp Remote feature that comes with the Winamp player these days, which allows you to stream your audio and video files from your PC via browser to anywhere with a decent network connection.
Does anybody disagree with Gozu that in his scenarios he should not be sued? From an ethical perspective, at least?