At MySpace, new rules for tunes
MySpace may be a favorite site for teenagers, but it's acting more and more like a grownup.
The social-networking site, now owned by News Corp., announced Monday that it is cracking down on users who post copyright music without authorization. It will use database technology from Gracenote to analyze uploaded songs and other material. Unauthorized material will be taken down, and users who repeatedly post such material will be blocked form the site.
The move comes as sites like MySpace and YouTube face increasing pressure from music companies and other copyright holders. But MySpace also is planning on opening up its own music store; bloggers doubted the new policy was a coincidence.
But will acting more responsible make the site seem less cool to teens, most of whom are used to blithely ignoring copyright law online? Teens are a fickle lot--could this be the beginning of the end?
Blog community response:
"The big question is whether MySpace will still continue to be cool as little by little it gets cleaned up and becomes a lot less like the Wild West and more like Disney Land."
--Hacking MySpace
"Eliminating one of its core social features just so it can support its music store is really short sighted. Why does it want to turn itself into yet another underdog iTunes competitor? Already, the site is battling to retain its ever-fickle youth demographic; making the site less cool will only hasten the move to freer pastures, where harmless activities like posting songs to a website will be tolerated."
--Techdirt
"I'm puzzled about why musicians and music fans haven't long ago solved this problem the way programmers and computer users solved it more than a decade ago. When the latter groups got tired of large, monopolistic corporations having a stranglehold on creative use of information, they didn't respond by trying to wrest control of existing information away from those who owned it. Instead, they went out and created new information (data and programs) themselves, and released it under licenses more conducive to the culture of sharing and innovation in which they wanted to live. So what's stopping the same thing from happening in music? Where is the Linux, the Apache, the BIND of the music world?"
--Isomeme's Journal
