Curry Violates "Terms of Service"
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Checking out the Podsafe Music Network, at first glance it seems like a pretty cool idea: unsigned artists register their music, and registered podcasters can download anything from the library and use it in their shows without paying any licensing fees or royalties. What’s the catch? According the the site, the “catch” is that they ask participating podcasters to
All we ask is that when you play music on your show that you found and downloaded here that you say so. You can do this by either:
- Saying during your show “Some of the music provided tonight from the PodShow Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at 'music.podshow.com”
- Playing one of our bumpers during your show. (Coming soon!!)
We also ask that you link back to PodShow podsafe music network in your shownotes for those shows that include music from this site. http://music.podshow.com.
Seems simple enough, and fair. But then when you actually go to register, you are presented with a much longer Terms of Use document that contains some very interesting requirements. For instance, as a podcaster using music from the Podsafe Music Network, you are not allowed to
promote or reference software piracy (warez, cracking, etc.), hacking, phreaking, emulators, ROM's, or illegal MP3 activity
That seems pretty harmless, until you consider that practically every “tech” podcast and a lot of just plain “culture” podcasts routinely reference software piracy and illegal MP3 activity… they don’t promote these things, but they certainly get referenced often enough.
Also, there is a clause in the terms that don’t allow the podcaster to
promote illegal activities, deceptive practices or violations of the intellectual property rights of others
That’s the one that I find most interesting. Adam Curry often references his pot smoking habit, and even talks about bringing marijuana into the United States on his trips from Europe and the UK.
He has in the past bragged about stealing his neighbor’s broadband connection when the local telephone company was not reacting quickly enough to install his own…
And on virtually every daily episode of his podcast he plays a “mash-up”, a compilation of various songs, which is a clear violation of copyright laws... a violation that he acknowledges and discusses regularly.
I’d be interested to see if "The Network" actually enforces these terms when the company’s own founder so blatantly violates them himself.
posted by Russell @ 11:00 AM,
2 Comments:
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At 11:49 PM,
mollyfud said...
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Hey Dude,
Check out my post Podsafe Music Network Bans Adam Curry?. It points to a bigger breaking of the Terms of the agreement.
HTH
Molly -
At 10:40 AM,
Russell said...
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Yea... I mentioned the mash-ups. That's been a point of contention with me for a while now, even before the "Network" was official. One the one hand he promotes 'podsafe music' unsigned artists, and then he continually rips off musicians and artists on a daily basis.
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