[x-pubpol] Hypedmusic shuts down after receiving cease and desist notice from RIAA

[Joly MacFie]

(via Debbie Newman)

http://gigaom.com/2013/12/31/hypedmusic-shuts-down-after-receiving-cease-and-desist-notice-from-riaa/

Hypedmusic shuts down after receiving cease and desist notice from RIAA

By Janko Roettgers
24 hours ago

Free music streaming app Hypedmusic shut down this month after it got
targeted by the RIAA for copyright infringement. Is this the start of a
wider crackdown on music startups without licensing agreements?
Free music streaming app Hypedmusic shut down this month after receiving a
cease and desist notice from the recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA). Luke Li, the developer of the app, explained in a blog post Tuesday
that he always thought Hypedmusic was legal and protected under the Digital
Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), but that he didn’t want to get into a legal
fight with the RIAA:

“I’m 18 years old, and I definitely do not want to get sued… Again, just to
reiterate: I did not make HypedMusic with the intention of infringing
copyright, I thought I was operating in a legal area after seeing
different, large companies do similar things. Once I saw the RIAA’s email,
I complied immediately.”

Hypedmusic was a web, Android and iOS app that allowed users to find and
stream music hosted on services like Soundcloud, YouTube and Tumblr through
a simple UI. Users could also generate playlists, which were synced across
devices — think of it a bit like Spotify, but without any subscription
costs.

Li assumed that the service itself was legal because the sites that were
actually hosting the music are protected by the DMCA, and he offered
copyright owners a way to remove their recordings from the Hypedmusic
catalog. However, the RIAA disagreed, writing in an email to Li:

“By indexing, linking to, transmitting, retransmitting, providing access
to, and/or otherwise assisting users in streaming and downloading
infringing copies of sound recordings emanating from various unauthorized
sources on the Internet, these applications are violating U.S. copyright
law.”

The timing of the takedown is curious: Just last week, Ex.fm announced that
it was shutting down its free music service as well, citing various
“takedowns and legal emails” as one reason that made it challenging to keep
the service up and running. At this point, it’s unclear whether Ex.fm was
the target of a RIAA-issued cease and desist letter as well. An RIAA
spokesperson wasn’t immediately available to comment on the matter when
contacted for this story, and I have yet to hear back from the Ex.fm team.

However, even the possibility of a more concerted effort by the major
labels to take down services that tap into music hosted on third-party
platforms could spell trouble for the music startup scene, as this is how
many companies build their first products.


-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com
 http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com
 VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - http://isoc-ny.org
--------------------------------------------------------------
-
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.isoc-ny.org/pipermail/x-pubpol-isoc-ny.org/attachments/20140101/e22791ce/attachment-0001.htm>