More interesting news:
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5107196.html?tag=nefd_top
An independent software developer has
created a program called MyTunes that lets
users of Apple Computer's iTunes for Windows
grab song files from other people on a
computer network.
While iTunes' main purpose is let people buy
music online and play songs stored on their
PC, the software also includes a feature
that allows customers to listen to songs
stored on another PC on their local network.
Apple's software makes no permanent copy of
the song, but the new MyTunes software
captures that "stream" of music, making a
copy that can be burned to a CD, uploaded to
the Net or streamed to another PC.
"iTunes does not allow you to save this
music to your hard drive," MyTunes' creator,
Bill Zeller, said on his Web site. "MyTunes
lifts this restriction by allowing you to
save music from other computers to your hard
drive."
While stream recording is not new--a myriad
programs exist for recording Web radio and
other streaming Net services for Windows and
Macintosh computers--the ease with which the
MyTunes software fits into iTunes pushes the
experience to a new, and perhaps legally
risky, level.
Running the program makes creating your own
MP3 songs from someone else's collection as
easy or easier than grabbing MP3s via
traditional file-swapping software like
Kazaa. That could complicate things for
Apple, which depends on the music industry's
support--and indeed, has won unprecedented
kudos from labels and artists--for its
iTunes music store.
The iTunes stream-sharing feature has
already been widely adopted inside companies
and on college campuses, where computer
users can sample co-workers' or fellow
students' music collections, as long as
they're both using iTunes and their
computers are on the same network.
As set up in iTunes, this is more akin to
on-demand Webcasting than true
file-sharing--but even tiny Webcasters are
in theory required to pay a royalty to
record companies and artists for streaming
songs online.
With the advent of MyTunes, the large iTunes
collections become more like a collectively
distributed database of songs from which
anybody can download--something that looks a
lot like Kazaa, although without the search
features.
Only unencrypted MP3 files are easily
captured and copied using the MyTunes
software, however. Songs purchased from
Apple's iTunes store, which are protected by
the company's proprietary digital rights
management technology, do not work with
Zeller's software.
The Recording Industry Association of
America (RIAA) declined to comment on the
iTunes or MyTunes features. Previously, the
RIAA has targeted corporations in which
large MP3 libraries were available to
employees through an internal computer
network, settling for $1 million in one
case. The group has also sent letters to
businesses and colleges warning about the
potential legal dangers of letting employees
or students use file-swapping services to
exchange copyrighted works.
The ability to stream music stored on
another computer has been part of iTunes for
the Mac for some time. Apple scaled back the
feature after some people started sharing
songs over the Internet.
For his part, Zeller said on his Web site
that he expects that MyTunes users will not
do anything illegal with the software.
"And remember, copyright infringement is
illegal," he says at the bottom of the page.
"If you have any question whether what
you're doing constitutes an infringement,
visit the RIAA's great antipiracy Web site."
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gdZiemann
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