fox@fury
Labels show true colors with uproar over Amazon Cloud Player
Tuesday, Mar 29, 2011

Amazon's new Cloud Player service allows users 5 gigs of cloud storage for their personal music files, so they can listen to them anywhere they have internet access. Apparently the music labels really don't like this. One example:

Sony Music, home to artists such as Shakira and Kings of Leon, was upset by Amazon's decision to launch the service without new licenses for music streaming, said spokeswoman Liz Young.

"We hope that they'll reach a new license deal," Young said, "but we're keeping all of our legal options open."

It's time to play "What crosses the line?" with an imaginary music label lawyer:

"If I buy an MP3, can I store it on my internal hard drive?"

Of course.

"If I buy an MP3, can I store it on an external hard drive?"

Naturally.

"Can I copy my purchased music on to my portable music player?"

Yes. Your license is not restricted to a single playback device.

"Can I store my purchased music on my home fileserver and play it on various devices I own?"

Yup.

"Can I store my purchased music on a remote fileserver and play it on various devices I own?"

Woah! That sounds like streaming!

"But this is music I bought license to and own. I can already play them as much as I want. Why should it matter how long the cord is?"

Streaming is bad! Must pay license fees for streaming!

"Even if the service is provided by a company with a vested interest in combating piracy?"

ESPECIALLY if it's provided by a company with lots of money. That's what you asked, right?

sigh...

When we buy music, what are we buying again? Either I keep forgetting or it keeps changing.

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Hi, I'm Kevin Fox.
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