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| Grooveshark Bites Back at the RIAA: We’re Completely Legal Posted: 19 Apr 2011 02:27 AM PDT
Google were tight-lipped, saying only that the company removes products that violate their terms and conditions. Last year, however, Grooveshark’s app was removed from Apple’s store on the same grounds. It was later confirmed that Apple had received a complaint from Universal Music. Perhaps inevitably, some observers have added these two events together and come to the conclusion that if Apple and mighty Google both have issues with Grooveshark there must be a pressing legal issue with the service. Not according to Senior VP of Information Products at Grooveshark, Paul Geller. In a statement responding to the “misleading press” created by the company’s “detractors and competitors”, he insists that his company’s product and operations are entirely legal. “Google hasn’t specified what it was in their ‘Terms of Service’ that we allegedly violated, but there does appear to be some confusion about whether Grooveshark is a legal service,” Geller first told Digital Music News. “So let’s set the record straight: there is nothing illegal about what Grooveshark offers to consumers.” Geller goes on to clarify the difference between a ‘legal’ service and one that is ‘licensed’. “Laws come from Congress. Licenses come from businesses,” he explains. “Grooveshark is completely legal because we comply with the laws passed by Congress, but we are not licensed by every label (yet).” According to Geller, Grooveshark is a technology company, and one which operates firmly within the boundaries of the DMCA. “Some would have you believe that those of us who use the DMCA to innovate are inherently infringers and that claiming Safe Harbor under the DMCA is as good as admitting guilt. Not so,” he insists. Geller suggests that the DMCA’s Safe Harbor provision was put in place to allow companies like YouTube (and indeed Grooveshark) to innovate and create ways around the problems being suffered by the content industries. “If it weren’t for this notion, many of the products and services that are now taking a bite out of piracy would never have been born,” he notes. On licensing, Geller says that Grooveshark has agreements with thousands of labels all over the world and also pays the three largest US performing rights organizations. “We pay for our streams, and we actively negotiate with virtually every single content owner,” says Geller. “We’ve taken down over 1.76 million files and suspended upload privileges to 22,274 users. These are not the characteristics of a company ‘dedicated to copyright infringement’. As we work with artists and labels to make more content available to our users, Grooveshark becomes more competitive as an alternative to piracy.” Grooveshark is hardly a small affair. Geller says they serve twenty-five million unique monthly users spanning more than 150 countries and will fight for their business. “In light of the recent misleading press concerning Grooveshark’s application, it is important to make clear that we will defend our service, and the letter and the spirit of the law, in court and in Congress.” “We will defend our name and our ideals for the sake of our users who expect modern delivery systems and comprehensive access across devices, for the sake of artists and content owners who fear another decade of decline, and for other innovators who continue to bring new ideas to market through the expression of creativity in the form of technology,” he concludes. In departing, Geller asks Google and Apple to reinstate the Grooveshark apps to their stores. Considering the pressure both companies are under and the negative noises coming from the RIAA, he could be waiting for a long time. Source: Grooveshark Bites Back at the RIAA: We’re Completely Legal |
| The Pirate Bay Joins Academic “Cybernorms” Research Group Posted: 18 Apr 2011 07:18 AM PDT
The world’s largest BitTorrent site has teamed up with the Cybernorms research group at Lund University and is encouraging its users to take a sociological survey on file-sharing related matters. The group researches how the Internet creates new social norms in society, and to what extent these norms are or should be reflected in relevant legislation. Ultimately, the researchers hope the collated knowledge and insights will help legislators to draft more sensible laws. Needless to say, this is a topic that The Pirate Bay takes to heart. “The Pirate Bay undertakes this study in cooperation with the research group Cybernorms at the Sociology of Law Department at Lund University in Sweden. Completing this short survey will take only a few minutes of your time, after which you will be redirected to The Pirate Bay,” the introduction of the survey reads. “Understanding online norms and values is essential to developing relevant and effective laws and policies. The purpose of this survey is to help researchers to better understand habits and norms within the file-sharing community. With your help, we hope to create a knowledge base that will influence new laws and law enforcement related to the internet,” it adds. The survey itself is pretty straightforward and can literally be answered in under a minute. Due to the nature of the topic, all data will be kept strictly confidential and no personally identifiable information such as IP-addresses will be stored. TorrentFreak got in touch with Cybernorms head of research Måns Svensson to find out more about the project and the purpose of the project. “In this survey that we are conducting together with The Pirate Bay we are collecting data that will give us information about file sharing around the world,” he told us. “We know that recent developments in terms of law and law enforcement in Sweden have weak support in the social norms of society. By conducting a global study among file sharers we will be able to get new information on the situation in other parts of the world.” “In a broader sense we want to follow and study the social norms that are emerging as a result of new technology and law’s ability to respond to the changes. Our hope is that better knowledge in this area will lead to a more sensible legal development,” Svensson added. Marcin De Kaminski, PhD candidate in Sociology of Law at Lund University and researcher at the Cybernorms group told TorrentFreak that The Pirate Bay has been a partner from the start but that this is the first time the site’s users are being asked to participate. “The Pirate Bay is still one of the top hundred largest sites on the Internet. As a researcher, it is a great opportunity to be able to base your work upon this. Especially when you’re trying to target a community which sometimes is hard to grasp,” De Kaminski said. The Cybernorms group officially started in 2009 and previously made the news when it found that millions of Swedes started to hide their online identity in response to tougher anti-piracy legislation. At the time the researchers found that 10 percent of all Swedes between the age 15 and 25 were taking measures to protect themselves against the increasing online surveillance. The new survey in collaboration with The Pirate Bay is truly the first of its kind. Although many academics and commercial research outfits have looked into the file-sharing issue, to date, none of them has reached out to such a massive group of BitTorrent users. We encourage all our readers who’ve occasionally shared a file to take part, and we’ll report on the results as soon as they come in. Source: The Pirate Bay Joins Academic “Cybernorms” Research Group |
In early April, Google removed Grooveshark’s music app from the Android Marketplace. While not initially confirmed, fingers were immediately pointed at the major record labels as the only groups with the power to influence such a decision.
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