May 14, 2003
iTunes and Webcasting
Ok, I still don’t have all the details on this matter, but I’m trying to follow the conversation. Go here, here, here, here, and definitely here. Prelim thoughts:
SpyMac and ShareiTunes seem to index files. I thought they were just pointing to IP addresses or something (I didn’t analyze their websites carefully enough at first). That might make things more tricky for them legally – I still don’t think they’d have to pay webcast fees, but they might be in a position of contributory liabilty.
The more I see, the more this looks like interactive webcasting. You can search for and play particular songs. Again, that means that these people should be negotiating licenses with the RIAA. If these people are not licensed (presumably so), and SpyMac gets a takedown notice (they seem like information localtion tools under DMCA 512), then SpyMac would be a position similar to Napster, I suppose.
I don’t think Apple is at risk. They don’t seem to have any control over how this software is used – they’re not doing any indexing, they’re not providing the “site and facilities.”
Things I need to find out: is this use of iTunes dissimilar from the initial growth of webcasting? That is, is this just a lot of hype, an unexceptional extension of amateur webcasting going on already? Or, is this really something new? (can we quantify that?) Is iTunes making it far easier to stream music? Similarly, is iLeech far easier to use than Streamripper or Total Recorder? Also, is iLeech circumventing a copy control measure? (Doesn’t seem like it, because only unencrypted files are being shared over iTunes. Then again, the program is set up specifically to only allow streaming. Don’t forget, we’ve been down similar roads with Realnetworks v. Streambox, and also with StreamRipper and Live 365.)
Filed by Derek Slater at 9:36 pm under General news
2 Comments
I agree in the short term. Webcasting is expensive to provide. I can’t see many people allowing too many people to stream off of their desktops/servers before they cry “uncle”
Of course, in the long term, PCs are 1000 times more powerful and bandwidth is 1/1000 as expensive and that equation will change. Everyone becomes a microRadio station in that world.
I also don’t think there’s much bad about what Apple is doing here. I also think it’s kind of different from webcasting. It’s almost like being able to put up a read only collection of your songs on your web page. There’s no real broadcasting going on, it’s more web-like in that sense.
It was interesting chatting about this tonight at the blog thing. I wish I had net while there, because I could have shown how it works on my laptop. I hope nothing comes of this because I love it. I love being able to share out my playlist and listen to it from wherever I happen to be (though I password protect it. I don’t want random people using up my bandwidth).