Playing around with Muxtape, because I think it's cool... you create a personal mixtape by uploading mp3s. Not sure about the legality of this really, but it's still cool.
I clicked on their terms (which are surprisingly simple considering the nature of this site), and it turns out I don't really understand them anyway. Maybe somebody can enlighten me:
Muxtape is a service for creating mixtapes. Users may not upload multiple songs from the same album or artist, or songs they do not have permission to let Muxtape use. Individual users may not create multiple muxtapes. Accounts not meeting these restrictions are subject to termination without notice. Muxtape will never reveal your email address to a third party. Muxtape is alive.
Right, so here's the line I don't understand: "Users may not upload multiple songs from the same album or artist, or songs they do not have permission to let Muxtape use."
Uh, isn't that pretty much any song I would want to put on my muxtape? Oh well, it's all fuzzy anyway...
I think the fact that you can't actually download the songs through the muxtape site and the fact that it actually links you back to a page where you can pay for the MP3 makes it legal (or at least less illegal) than other sites. Of course, I would also think that playing the music through the muxtape site would be a form of distribution violating copyright -- but I could be wrong, and I'm not really complaining either way.
What's the link to your muxtape? I've noticed that we librarians tend to have excellent musical tastes.
I actually don't have a muxtape created yet, but I did start playing with mixwit, which I'm pretty sure is even less legal since it's pulling tunes from who knows where on the internet. I'm still messing around with my mixwit mix, but you can go here to see what I have so far.
So the streaming thing is an interesting issue, but just because it's streaming and they're offering a link to buy, I still don't think it's legal. There are special licenses to play music publically, which I believe streaming falls under this category; given their terms are very short, sweet, and to the point, I have to imagine that they're not paying for any such licenses. The user is uploading their own music, but a digital copy is now being stored on muxtape's server... while I'm not sure they're paying the licensing fee or not, if they're not and they're serving out digital music from their own server, I'm thinking that's not a good thing for them... I think mixwit is smart, at least they're serving out music from other people's servers, and if you upload music for a mixtape you are forced to do so on another server, which honestly has made me think twice about uploading my own music, that's for sure.
Yeah, I'm pretty positive this is not legal, and I do know quite a bit about copyright law... but you're right, I'm not complaining either.
I agree with you completely. The logic behind mixwit seems similar to the logic behind Beemp3 -- even if the site provides indirect access to illegal distribution, the site does not provide the distribution itself. Again, it's still questionable from a legal standpoint, but it does provide at least some kind of stopgap loophole to get them out of copyright infringement.
If you want, feel free to check out my muxtape and let me know what you think. It's still a work in progress since database reconstruction ate my playlist, but I'm working on remixing (remuxing?) it while I'm stuck on my couch with the Loritab.
You know I seem to remember the whole loophole thing being tested in court through some case with thumbnail images... I know people have tried to claim copyright infringement through hyperlinking too. Of course search engines, like Google, would be screwed if copyright infringement carried over to things that they were not hosting themselves, but only indexing... um I suppose this wouldn't be too good for libraries and archives either.
The idea of muxtape is pretty cool, and to be honest, one of my songs on my mixwit is included because I heard it on muxtape, so they are definitely providing a useful method of music discovery. I just won't be surprised if they're not around forever. :)
I can't wait to check out your muxtape Chris!
Chris, are you on Last.fm? I love your muxtape! I noticed we both picked the same Coldplay song for our mixes too. :)
I am indeed on last.fm.
And Coldplay's pretty cool. "The Scientist" is one of those songs that will stick with me forever.
I'm finding it hard to believe that our last.fm compatibility is low... oh well, thanks for adding me!