Users may not upload songs... they do not have permission to let Muxtape use.
Excuse me while I play Debbie Downer. I may get blacklisted from tumblr for this, but here it goes.
First let’s take the internet out of this equation and talk about the legality of mix tapes. We all did it back in the day. But was it legal? Some people claim it was Fair Use and covered under Audio Home Recording Act. The moment you’ve given the mixtape to someone it could be considered distribution and therefore might be considered illegal for distributing other people’s music without a license, regardless of profit.
Now we have Muxtape, which even I will admit is very ingenious. But with all the controversy lately over music on the internet, is it legal? Technically, by listening to someone’s muxtape I don’t really have a copy on my computer that I can put on my iPod or any other mp3 player, right? I wouldn’t even know where to attempt to even try that or if it’s possible. Does that take out the question of distribution? Eh. Yes and No. I can’t really do anything with these files of music except listen to them anytime I want.
But wait.
What is the definition of Muxtape? It isn’t a download and it isn’t peer-to-peer file sharing. It’s basically a watered down internet radio or streaming. And yes, these configurations still require licensing and payment of royalties. (streaming rates yet to be determined) Either through a performance license or mechanical license depending on if the medium is classified as programmed radio or on-demand streaming. This goes back to the terms of use. This is a commonly used disclaimer in the latest up and coming websites. It attempts to put the responsibility of licensing on the user instead of the person behind the scenes.
There you have it. My little opinion on the legal stuff. (I am not a lawyer.)
Statements expressed here are not necessarily opinions of my employer. The content of this post does not constitute the provision of legal advice, counsel or opinion of any nature.Thanks for that, I was wondering the same thing. So eventually it seems that Muxtape will have to pay some kind of streaming licensing royalties, unless they’ve figured out some way around that.
I don’t know. To me it seems that Muxtape is basicly a Tumblr-like platform for scaled down music blogs, and they don’t have to pay royalties, do they? I mean, they may have to impose a few more limitations in the future as well as do a little more policing about the songs that get put up, but as long as they keep things small i don’t see much of a difference between Muxtape and, say, Gorilla vs Bear or Fluxblog. Am i wrong in thinking this?