中国法律博客
ChinaLegalBlog.com
Brave New (IP) World
媒体来源: 中国法律博客

This has nothing to do with China, but from an intellectual property perspective, this is quite interesting:

The next potential casualty of America’s deficient copyright regime is MP3Tunes, a Silicon Valley startup founded by Web entrepreneur Michael Robertson, which lets users store digital music files in a Web-based locker they can access from anywhere. MP3Tunes lets listeners access only music they have uploaded themselves. Like a handheld MP3 player, MP3Tunes frees music lovers from dragging around massive album collections on physical discs.

But now Robertson’s service has run into a major obstacle. EMI, a major British record label, has sued MP3Tunes for copyright infringement. EMI contends that since users are transferring their music to a third party without getting permission from the record label, MP3Tunes is violating EMI’s exclusive right to distribute its music. MP3Tunes faces tough odds given past rulings in copyright infringement cases. LINK

I think the specific copyright infringement claim here is ridiculous, but that's not the reason I find this interesting. It's the application itself, and the bigger issue of cloud-based data storage and apps that operate in that environment.

Imagine that I store all my files on a server in, I don't know, say the Cayman Islands. Wherever my travels take me, I access my mp3 or video files via streaming using something like MP3Tunes, assuming I have the bandwidth. Sounds great.

Now further assume that I have uploaded a lot of infringing product onto that server. How do the IP owners 1) find out about it; and 2) enforce their rights. I would argue that there is no difference here between remote storage and local storage, and that I don't want industry poking around my files in either case.

However, no doubt that industry does not feel the same way, and that they will try very hard to somehow get at this sort of information. Not sure how that would play out, but it would be an interesting fight.

Second issue. I want to share access to my remote storage with my wife, who also will download or stream files from the road. Now we have even more distribution problems. If this was possible, then the companies providing these applications would have even more problems with industry (this is not the case, apparently, with the MP3Tunes app). Just for the record, I would be shocked if third party access is never allowed – users would be screaming for this, right?

This is very cool stuff, but as cloud-based apps and remote storage kicks in (as mobile bandwidth expands), there will be another interesting period of fighting between software providers, industry, and individual users. Stay tuned.