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EFF To Defend Music Swapping Service MusicCity

Posted by Hemos on from the get-out-the-defense dept.

MattW writes "Yahoo is carrying the CNET story that EFF has come to the defense of MusicCity, which produces peer-to-peer software, but does not run central servers as Napster did. EFF has a whitepaper on the Sony Betamax case, and it discusses the implications of various court decisions during the Napster case and their effect on it as a precedent. A MusicCity lawyer, who was responsible for the successful defense of the Rio, is quoted, astutely observing: 'This case shows more clearly (than Napster) that what the plaintiffs are most concerned about is control of technology. This is all about whether they can leverage copyrights into control over software development.' And that's truly what the RIAA's interest in Napster was about: not money, but control."

6 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. "freedom of technologists to innovate" by Alrocket · · Score: 3, Funny

    "This case is about the freedom of technologists to innovate and the public's right to communicate," said Fred von Lohmann, senior intellectual property attorney for the EFF.

    This sounds chillingly like what Bill Gates said a few days ago... :)

    Al.

  2. But you don't need a plugin.. by PopeAlien · · Score: 3, Funny

    'Illegal' files can be got via HTTP or FTP.. You can find lists of them on webpages, most likely created with MS front page and viewed on Internet Explorer.. I think its time we really got tough on piracy and threw the whole Redmond lot in jail!

    --
    air and light and time and space
  3. Re:Woods by Mr.+Sketch · · Score: 2, Funny

    Correction:
    If a boy band plays and no one hears, does it still suck?

    --
    Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
  4. Re:If they start taking folks doing the trading aw by sam@caveman.org · · Score: 2, Funny

    maybe they'll let the rapists and armed robbers out to make room for the copyright infringers and pot smokers.

    oh, wait... they already do that...

    -sam

    --
    burn the computers. go back to the abacus.
  5. changelog for Morpheus sometime in 2002 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    -some bugfixes (ya, right)

    -RIAA banner ads

    -every time you download a song you will have to send $50 to the RIAA, if you reject just click on the button that says "I'm an evil pirate who supports the EFF and their IP-infringing practices"

    -Morpheus logo changed to RIAA icon

    -99% chance that MP3 header file will be corrupted when you download from someone

    -Linux client released. to install, download linuxclient.tar.gz, su to root, and chmod +000 * in /

    -all MP3/ogg codecs found on your system will be replaced by the RIAA-optimized version that will play your MP3s at an astonishing 24kbps

    -random banning of subnets, because the RIAA loves you.

    -we ownzored napster now we ownzor joo.

  6. Re:MusicCity or FastTrack? by CrazyBrett · · Score: 3, Funny

    They might be picking random targets because they don't know any better. Things are getting so desperate that they'll attack anything that has the word "Music" in the title.

    I vote we write a piece of software called MusicShareNet which does something trivial and unrelated, like editing text. Then we advertise it all over the place, and see if we can get the RIAA to panic and sue the authors :)