Do you even understand how beam-it works? Do you understand the legal concept of fair-use?
The my.mp3.com service verifies that you have the physical CD in your possesion. Once you prove that you hold the CD, you are given access to the same music as you already own, except you don't need to carry the CD and a player with you where ever you go.
There is no copyright violation. Fair-use allows you to make as many copies of any content that you own for your personal use. The my.mp3.com service is just the most recent incarnation of fair-use. In a full trial, the details will be hashed out so that even the most non-internet savvy judge can understand this fact.
Not only does my.mp3.com use beam-it to verify that you own the CD, they also link to cd-retailers so that once you have purchased the CD, you do not have to wait for it to be shipped to you for you to have access to it over the internet.
The industry is again playing their traditional role of reactionary luddites by trying to fight this. Kicking and screaming, or through the ascension of more enlightenment management, they will be brought into the 21st century and they will embrace this new method of content distribution. It is only a matter of time, the customer demand for it (particularly with G3, high-bandwidth, wireless devices coming out this year) will be to strong to resist.
Think what you want about "copyright violations", snicker, but even in the worst case, and the RIAA is awarded the full punitive damages of $8B that they are asking for, mp3.com will still be around in a year from now because the appeals process for such a judgement will take at least that long. |
