10-14-2015 03:02 PM
Just a few days ago, a new P2P app called Aurous burst onto the streaming music scene. Some called it “the Popcorn Time of music,” which is exactly the kind of talk that makes RIAA lawyers drum their fingers Mr. Burns-style.
The app is a bit like Napster and Limewire (remember them?), but with an important twist: it was built to tap into torrent trackers and pulls songs from the swarm. You can stream tracks and download them, and all without paying anyone a single cent. Andrew Sampson, one of the developers working on Aurous, mentioned that they planned to include links to purchase tracks in iTunes, but those links haven’t surfaced yet.
Perhaps Aurous attracted too much attention too quickly. Somehow, Aurous got picked up by mainstream media and quickly billed as a Spotify and Apple Music challenger — a “potential game-changer” that could disrupt the entire streaming music industry. That’s despite the fact that Aurous generates no direct income for artists, has no licensing deals in place, and is using the same torrent technology that’s still widely perceived as only being used by pirates.
The RIAA moved to strike quickly, specifying 20 songs being infringed in the suit filed yesterday in a Florida district court. They’re arguing that Aurous “is a flagrant example of a business model powered by copyright theft on a massive scale.” That claim may be helped by the fact that Aurous is currently still relying on Pleer.com integration (torrent functionality is still in the works, apparently).
Pleer is a Russian website that’s been around for years, streaming unsanctioned content to listeners around the globe. They recently found themselves in legal hot water, too, thanks to the National Federation of the Music Industry (NFMI, Russia’s equivalent of the RIAA) finally saying enough is enough.
The RIAA’s case against Aurous likely won’t be an open and shut case, and Sampson certainly doesn’t seem fazed by the suit. He tweeted, “Hey @RIAA @UMG and everyone else, we challenge every CEO to an arm wrestling competition, we win you drop your empty suit.”
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The app is a bit like Napster and Limewire (remember them?), but with an important twist: it was built to tap into torrent trackers and pulls songs from the swarm. You can stream tracks and download them, and all without paying anyone a single cent. Andrew Sampson, one of the developers working on Aurous, mentioned that they planned to include links to purchase tracks in iTunes, but those links haven’t surfaced yet.
Perhaps Aurous attracted too much attention too quickly. Somehow, Aurous got picked up by mainstream media and quickly billed as a Spotify and Apple Music challenger — a “potential game-changer” that could disrupt the entire streaming music industry. That’s despite the fact that Aurous generates no direct income for artists, has no licensing deals in place, and is using the same torrent technology that’s still widely perceived as only being used by pirates.
The RIAA moved to strike quickly, specifying 20 songs being infringed in the suit filed yesterday in a Florida district court. They’re arguing that Aurous “is a flagrant example of a business model powered by copyright theft on a massive scale.” That claim may be helped by the fact that Aurous is currently still relying on Pleer.com integration (torrent functionality is still in the works, apparently).
Pleer is a Russian website that’s been around for years, streaming unsanctioned content to listeners around the globe. They recently found themselves in legal hot water, too, thanks to the National Federation of the Music Industry (NFMI, Russia’s equivalent of the RIAA) finally saying enough is enough.
The RIAA’s case against Aurous likely won’t be an open and shut case, and Sampson certainly doesn’t seem fazed by the suit. He tweeted, “Hey @RIAA @UMG and everyone else, we challenge every CEO to an arm wrestling competition, we win you drop your empty suit.”
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.
More...
