Today, someone asked me to clarify Magnatune's position on sharing our music on peer-to-peer networks:
Is my understanding correct that the 128bit mp3s can distributed in any way, including peer-to-peer as long as the license information is intact?
Here's what I said:
Yes, the 128k mp3s can be legally distributed.
However, I ask that you not upload our mp3s to p2p networks (such as Kazaa) as I feel that Kazaa (and most other p2p clients) are not ethically run businesses and I don't want to be part of their camp.
I **really** don't like the ad-ware and spy-ware Kazaa (and most other p2p clients) install, as it shows a fundamental disrespect for their audience. After installing Kazaa, and several other clients on my machine, my system was effectively unusable and it took me hours of work to remove the virus-like advertising popups that had been installed on my computer. Kazaa really is evil, and my experience with most other p2p clients has been just as bad -- I just don't understand how a executives at a company can sleep well at night, knowing their company is disabling millions of user's desktops with crippling amounts of pop up advertising, spying on their every move, and selling that private data to third parties.
So basically, I want nothing to do with the p2p industry as it exists today.
I do aggressively use the Creative Commons license on Magnatune's to share the music with causes I believe in.
For instance, this week I uploaded all of Magnatune's music to http://www.webjay.org/ -- a shared playlist/radio site I really enjoy (after reading Jon Udell's blog article on Webjay), and am currently submitting Magnatune's music to iRate as well.
I have no problem with p2p as a technology, and will soon be offering Alluvium p2p audio broadcasting. I find bittorrent interesting as well, mainly as a way to share previously-broadcast television, or for non-profit net-labels to distribute their gigabyte-sized catalogs.
So please, for now, don't upload Magnatune's music to p2p networks, as it's not a cause I want to support.
However, if you see cool *ethical* sites and uses for Magnatune's music, please do point them at Magnatune and let me know about it.
I would be interested in viewing your video if it wasn't on Quicktime. I had to remove that player because it took over every media I tried to use and worked poorly at best. Possibly because I use an Hp and listen to Magnatune on my MusicMAtch radio player. Let me know if you transfer the video onto another format compatible with RealPlayer or WindowsMedia.
Thanks for your post, Eric
Posted by: Eric | April 17, 2004 at 01:37 AM
I guess it is good to have the P2P stuff clarified. It is just funny, as that part of my post was pretty much a throwaway comment, and I wasn't thinking of actually putting anything up on P2P. :)
My main point was just that since the 128bit mp3s are licensed with something similar to CC attribution sharealike, that people might think the full quality versions were the same way, and that the main benefits of buying would just be to support the artists and have easy access to a high-bandwith d/l of the higher quality.
BTW, while I'm here.. one quick question. For something like Brad Sucks' album, where he says on his site that you are free to copy the album and give it to other people, I take it that in the technical sense, that'd only apply if you bought the cd directly from him, with the Magnatune license being a bit more restrictive?
I'd rather direct people to buy copies from Magnatune anyway (this way Brad doesn't have to burn and mail these things out himself, and I like supporting this server), but I just thought it was an interesting situation..
Posted by: Shawn Fumo | April 22, 2004 at 06:51 AM
You wrote:
"For something like Brad Sucks' album, where he says on his site that you are free to copy the album and give it to other people, I take it that in the technical sense, that'd only apply if you bought the cd directly from him, with the Magnatune license being a bit more restrictive?"
I let musicians distribute their music however they like, and some of my musicians choose to give away their music for free from their web site, while still having me sell it from Magnatune. That's fine by me.
As far as Brad promoting sharing his music goes, yes, technically, the "give it to anyone you know" idea that Brad uses to push his music would only be applicable to a CD you received from him, as opposed to a Magnatune WAV file you purchased (however, you're free to give the Magnatune MP3s to others).
So yes, there is a slightly different license, but I don't get too hung up about such things, as just getting the music out there is the goal, with some sort of incentive (besides "feeling good about doing good") for people to pay Magnatune for its service.
-john
Posted by: John Buckman | April 22, 2004 at 09:17 AM