Legalities of a Company Sponsored MP3 Repository?

An anonymous reader asks: "At our company numerous people store MP3s on their local hard drives. Because we don't allow MP3's through email, and peer-to-peer file sharing programs, practically all of the MP3s are ripped from CD in the office. What is the liability for the company if it were to allow employees to place all ripped MP3s in a central location, that any employee could access? There would be practically no way to distribute the MP3s outside of the company, and it seems that this would be a legitimate practice that shouldn't open the company to liability (equivalent to providing the CD to a coworker). I'm wondering because I'd like to use this as a morale-booster at our company. I'm worried about the company being liable in some way as it would be company-supported. Does anyone have any feedback or experience with this?"

Comments

stop moaning! just do it!

[Miguel de Icaza]

you shouldn't let yourself be frightened like this. just do it, put the music on your central server and let everyone enjoy it. odds are no-one is gonna come after you - sheesh if they do just apologise take the service away and find an alternative way to get music in the office. you'll be a hero in the eyes of your people.

We use streaming radio in my office of 30 (which is also technically illegal without a licence but its one of laws everybody just breaks)

if every software company suddenly started aggresively enforcing all their patents then the economy would evaporate. Same thing goes for music copyright :^)