EMI v MP3Tunes – Why You Should Care

Have you ever seen a large ship turn? Or stop? It takes literally miles of water for those maneuvers to happen. The vessels are so big that they can’t do anything quickly.

The same thing happens to large corporations and even whole industries when they have to adapt to changing conditions in the marketplace. It’s much easier for them to continue along the path they’ve always travelled than to try to change direction.

Because changing direction is difficult for them, they do everything in their power to keep things the way they’ve always been. The change eventually happens anyway, but if they can delay it long enough they can get the ship turned and continue being viable in the marketplace.

Such is the case with the lawsuit brought by EMI against MP3Tunes, an online music storage service. EMI is an aircraft carrier compared to MP3Tunes‘ wave runner. EMI can’t outmaneuver MP3Tunes, so they’re trying to blow them out of the water.

You can read the legal details here, if you’re so inclined. There’s a description for the rest of us here. The latter is written by Michael Robertson, CEO of MP3Tunes, but it’s a fair representation of the case, in my opinion.

So, why should you care about this case? Because EMI v MP3Tunes represents a multinational corporation trying to maintain the status quo even when it’s obvious that the world changed long ago. I didn’t have a problem with the RIAA shutting down the original Napster because what Napster was doing was illegal. MP3Tunes is a whole different deal.

MP3Tunes is a small company on the leading edge of modern technology. They’re providing a great service for music fans. I personally have over 40 GB of music stored in my MP3Tunes locker. It’s not being shared with anybody, it’s simply stored online where I can access it from anywhere I have a computer and an Internet connection.

I recommend you go to http://www.mp3tunes.com and get your own music locker, preferably one of the paid versions. The more people who sign up for the paid services, the better chance MP3Tunes has of winning this case. 40 bucks a year is dirt cheap for the ability to store all your music online where it’s safely backed up and accessible from anywhere.

The legal system favors those with deeper pockets. Many cases are won because one of the parties, usually the one who should win runs out of money and can’t continue. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen in EMI vs MP3Tunes.

John Sawyer

Here is some additional info on this issue:

MP3tunes Founder Asks Imeem CEO For Help; Gets Shut Down – The legal scuffle between EMI and MP3tunes began in September 2007 when, in a letter that accused MP3tunes of a wide range of illicit actions, EMI sent MP3tunes a specific list of songs it wanted taken down from Sideload.com. …

Sean Costello April 16, 1979 – April 15, 2008

We’ve lost another one, folks. No details seem to be available beyond the fact that Sean Costello was found dead in his hotel in Atlanta last night. There’s a very small “Rest in Peace” graphic above Sean’s picture on the Piedmont Talent web site, but nothing on the rest of the sites yet. I’m sure there will be once more is known, but that’s not really important.

I can’t claim to have heard a lot of Sean’s work, but what I have heard I liked. He was a very fine guitar player and singer. Fortunately, he’s left recordings behind, but as we all know, recordings are never quite the same as the real live deal.

Get out and see your favorites, y’all. You never know when you’ll get another chance.

I’ve added Sean to the Videos page. Lots of good stuff there.

http://www.seancostello.com/
http://www.myspace.com/seancostello
http://www.piedmonttalent.com/
http://www.deltagrooveproductions.com/