[Infowarrior] - Opentape Sticks It to RIAA with Open Source Muxtape

[Richard Forno]

Opentape Sticks It to RIAA with Open Source Muxtape

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/08/26/opentape-sticks-it-to-riaa- 
with-open-source-muxtape/

by Josh Catone

With web music fan favorite Muxtape currently out of commission due  
to “a problem with the RIAA,” an open source — if no more legal —  
alternative has appeared: Opentape. Opentape describes itself as “a  
free, open-source package that lets you make and host your own  
mixtapes on the web.” Or, in other words, a Muxtape clone that’s free  
and open source.

The demo mixtape is basically a straight up clone of the Muxtape  
site. The software uses PHP 5, Apache, and requires curl. The version  
0.1 release hit the web a couple of days ago.

Why would anyone want to create an open source version of an  
application that was shuttered due to legal trouble with the highly  
litigous American recording industry? Over at Hacker News, where I  
first heard about Opentape, the concensus seems to be that the idea  
is to become another thorn in the RIAA’s side. The more people  
running their own version of what is essentially Muxtape, the harder  
it will theoretically be for the RIAA to shut them down.

Opentape doesn’t solve any copyright issues, it just makes it harder  
for the RIAA to litigate. However, as others on Hacker News have  
pointed out, the RIAA has not been shy about going after individuals  
when it comes to P2P traffic.

A few weeks ago we posted about a new service called 8tracks that  
operates similarly to Muxtape — allowing users to create 8 song  
mixtapes and share them with friends — but is planning to do so  
legally by paying royalties to SoundExchange, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.

Will Opentape succeed? That’s hard to say, but there are two  
potential issues holding it back. The obvious one is legal: how many  
people will be willing to risk the RIAA’s wrath to publish a mixtape  
on their server? The second is content. What made Muxtape great was  
the ability to browse other mixtapes and find great new music.  
Without a way to aggregate and discover the mixtapes people are  
making and publishing with Opentape, it will be less attractive as a  
distributed service.