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I think they're trying for more of a "fight the power" kind of solution. If everybody and their brother is running OpenTape, shutting down web-based mixtapes b

by shard 18y ago

I think they're trying for more of a "fight the power" kind of solution. If everybody and their brother is running OpenTape, shutting down web-based mixtapes becomes prohibitively difficult.

wyclif 18y ago
Yes, that's what I was thinking. I see this as a distributed-computing solution to RIAA legal threats, "The Pirate Bay gambit", if you will.
yan 18y ago
This is how I interpreted it as well
babyshake 18y ago
It may be instructive to see what the torrent community has done with the Hydra project. After all, the Muxtape "code" was only one part that made it shine. It was the content that made the service so enjoyable. If content could be backed up and retrieved across the Opentape network, that would be cool.
aston 18y ago
Yeah, but add in the personal liability part. The RIAA has demonstrated before that they have no problems suing individuals for exorbitant sums of money. At least Oullette had a corporation to protect him.
nickb 18y ago
Are you running it yourself? :) If everybody and their brother is running OpenTape, shutting down web-based mixtapes becomes prohibitively difficult. That's what they said about P2P and RIAA is still suing hundreds and hundreds of people. Muxtape clones are gonna be even easier to shut down.
- ivankirigin 18y ago
  Exactly. The elephant in the room with the RIAA is the ubiquity of piracy. That's what makes DRM for the ipod so insane: only a small sliver of music is from a store.
- netcan 18y ago
  >>That's what they said about P2P and RIAA is still suing hundreds and hundreds of people. Sure. But I think that's ore out of frustration then strategy. P2P (among other things) is killing copyright. Well, at least in the way that guns kill people.
- alex_c 18y ago
  Muxtape clones are gonna be even easier to shut down. Depends where they're hosted, doesn't it?
- shard 18y ago
  Are you running it yourself? :) You seem to be implying that my argument is invalid unless I am running OpenTape. I disagree. I am presenting an argument, not professing my belief system. That's what they said about P2P and RIAA is still suing hundreds and hundreds of people. RIAA is suing hundreds of people. Considering the hundreds of millions of people sharing mp3s, that's down in the noise floor. It's more likely that you'll slip and kill yourself in the bathtub than get sued by RIAA (National Safety Council says the odds of a fatal fall in the bathtub are one in 11,469).
  - nickb 18y ago
    No, my argument is perfectly valid. You're implying that running OpenTape is easy. So I asked you where is yours.... to see if you practice what you preach. Running OpenTape is not easy at all. You need an ISP account, some knowledge of how to upload stuff, knowledge of how to set up a web app, some knowledge of PHP also might be necessary. So the number of OpenTape users is very small indeed. And not to mention the EASE with which you'll get your ISP account shut down. An ISP will shut you down faster than your cable company would over using Bittorrent. So that's why I don't buy your argument about RIAA having 'hard time' shutting down OpenTape users. The whole point of my post is that OpenTape is solving the wrong problem. It's a typical techie trap: trying to solve a social/legal problem with a technical solution... it almost never works.
    - shard 18y ago
      Good point about the difficulty of setting up OpenTape for an average music lover. Your argument led me to thinking about the difference between Muxtape/OpenTape and the mixtapes that DJs have been posting online for years. One major difference is that most mixtapes I see have no track listings, and therefore record companies are not able to pinpoint copyright violations efficiently. I suppose then the questions is: How important is the track listing to the success of Muxtape? Another reason is obscurity of the site/DJ. But if the Muxtape community fragments into a gaggle of OpenTape sites, perhaps it will have the same effect.
      - 18y ago

by shard 18y ago

I think they're trying for more of a "fight the power" kind of solution. If everybody and their brother is running OpenTape, shutting down web-based mixtapes becomes prohibitively difficult.

wyclif 18y ago

Yes, that's what I was thinking. I see this as a distributed-computing solution to RIAA legal threats, "The Pirate Bay gambit", if you will.

yan 18y ago

This is how I interpreted it as well

babyshake 18y ago

It may be instructive to see what the torrent community has done with the Hydra project. After all, the Muxtape "code" was only one part that made it shine. It was the content that made the service so enjoyable. If content could be backed up and retrieved across the Opentape network, that would be cool.

aston 18y ago

Yeah, but add in the personal liability part. The RIAA has demonstrated before that they have no problems suing individuals for exorbitant sums of money. At least Oullette had a corporation to protect him.

nickb 18y ago

Are you running it yourself? :) If everybody and their brother is running OpenTape, shutting down web-based mixtapes becomes prohibitively difficult. That's what they said about P2P and RIAA is still suing hundreds and hundreds of people. Muxtape clones are gonna be even easier to shut down.

ivankirigin 18y ago
Exactly. The elephant in the room with the RIAA is the ubiquity of piracy. That's what makes DRM for the ipod so insane: only a small sliver of music is from a store.
netcan 18y ago
>>That's what they said about P2P and RIAA is still suing hundreds and hundreds of people. Sure. But I think that's ore out of frustration then strategy. P2P (among other things) is killing copyright. Well, at least in the way that guns kill people.
alex_c 18y ago
Muxtape clones are gonna be even easier to shut down. Depends where they're hosted, doesn't it?
shard 18y ago
Are you running it yourself? :) You seem to be implying that my argument is invalid unless I am running OpenTape. I disagree. I am presenting an argument, not professing my belief system. That's what they said about P2P and RIAA is still suing hundreds and hundreds of people. RIAA is suing hundreds of people. Considering the hundreds of millions of people sharing mp3s, that's down in the noise floor. It's more likely that you'll slip and kill yourself in the bathtub than get sued by RIAA (National Safety Council says the odds of a fatal fall in the bathtub are one in 11,469).
- nickb 18y ago
  No, my argument is perfectly valid. You're implying that running OpenTape is easy. So I asked you where is yours.... to see if you practice what you preach. Running OpenTape is not easy at all. You need an ISP account, some knowledge of how to upload stuff, knowledge of how to set up a web app, some knowledge of PHP also might be necessary. So the number of OpenTape users is very small indeed. And not to mention the EASE with which you'll get your ISP account shut down. An ISP will shut you down faster than your cable company would over using Bittorrent. So that's why I don't buy your argument about RIAA having 'hard time' shutting down OpenTape users. The whole point of my post is that OpenTape is solving the wrong problem. It's a typical techie trap: trying to solve a social/legal problem with a technical solution... it almost never works.
  - shard 18y ago
    Good point about the difficulty of setting up OpenTape for an average music lover. Your argument led me to thinking about the difference between Muxtape/OpenTape and the mixtapes that DJs have been posting online for years. One major difference is that most mixtapes I see have no track listings, and therefore record companies are not able to pinpoint copyright violations efficiently. I suppose then the questions is: How important is the track listing to the success of Muxtape? Another reason is obscurity of the site/DJ. But if the Muxtape community fragments into a gaggle of OpenTape sites, perhaps it will have the same effect.
    - 18y ago