So, smart phone users can share song files by touching phones, which begs the question...

[CDSmith]

How is this different than the mp3 sharing that was going on 10 years ago? A lot of people here were like "you're stealing if you're using Napster, Bearshare, etc" yet smart phone companies are now actually using the fact that songs can be shared instantly as a marketing tool to sell more phones.

Someone pls explain.

Do you share/accept songs with your smart phone?

I'll admit I did some downloading using Napster and one or two other systems back in the day, but it was mainly to grab songs I had already paid for on CD, vinyl or tape just to have the digital versions. Since I'd already bought the album in one form or another I didn't feel guilty about downloading something I'd already paid for.

But as we all know there was a pretty massive uproar several years back, from the music industry and a lot of fairly self-riteous people, about people sharing songs over the internet, yet as we speak there are growing numbers of people by the millions out there doing it with hand-held devices.

I'd like to understand why one is acceptable but the other is an egregious no-no punishable by $1000 fines and up to two years in prison?

[CurrentlySober]

i enjoy ejaculate...

[Tofu]

Apple curbed that activity with the new BUMP update.


I'm not sure about Andriod.

To answer your other question; no. I do not share songs, via my iphone unless they are
shared from the artist or spotify. I use dropbox
to sell music, but if my clients want a composition, he/she pays.I stopped sharing music and apps, once I realized
that pirating was also hurting my business (circa 2005). I felt like such a hypocrite, so I stopped.

[Quentin]

Originally Posted by CDSmith

I'd like to understand why one is acceptable but the other is an egregious no-no punishable by $1000 fines and up to two years in prison?

The primary difference that springs to mind is that sharing via "near field communication" (the technology utilized to enable phone-to-phone data sharing of the sort that you have described) is that a mobile phone user sharing files by using NFC shares his files/playlist one user at a time, in a way that requires the physical presence of the other person's device, while online p2p sharing enables a single person to share with an effectively unlimited number of other users, other users who need never share physical space with the person doing the sharing.

In other words, as a matter of scale, p2p sharing is far more efficient as a means of distributing pirated materials than is NFC.

Having said that, from a legal perspective, sharing copyrighted materials without authorization via NFC is likely to be considered illegal for some of the same reasons that p2p sharing is.

The device manufacturers, software developers, etc., whose technology enables the sharing are unlikely to be held liable (in large part because NFC has substantial non-infringing uses), but individual users could easily be held liable for sharing, provided that the relevant rights-holders were (a) aware of the infringing activity in the first place and (b) could obtain evidence against the infringing parties that could be presented in court.

One theory of liability that might get some traction in court with respect to the phone manufacturers and data carriers would be the "inducement" theory of liability -- but I think the manufacturers/carriers would have to go a lot farther than they have so far in terms of explicitly encouraging the sharing of copyrighted materials in order for such a theory to stick in court.

[CDSmith]

Originally Posted by Quentin

In other words, as a matter of scale, p2p sharing is far more efficient as a means of distributing pirated materials than is NFC.

More efficient, yes, in the way that you described, of being able to share with many people at any given time to and from any point on the globe. I get that. But I'm sure a lot of people will also say that sharing is sharing no matter how it's done.

I know some younger people (who will remain nameless) who constantly share songs amongst thier wide group of friends. One will grab a new song and then distribute it to dozens of others. Near or far it's still sharing.

And I think the main point is twofold: that at least some of the smart phone companies are mentioning this feature prominently in their advertising, and also that it seems to be acceptable by the masses. So far I haven't heard a peep from anyone from the music industry. Of course it took Napster et al's doing music sharing for a few years before the music industry reacted, this may be a similar case here. The music biz isn't the swiftest tool in the shed when it comes to adapting or dealing with these sorts of things.

Other than the efficiency/proximity argument, is there any other major differences in the two type of sharing?

On the flip side of the argument, it's always been that when someone buys an album (CD, or tape/vinly record etc back in the day) there was nothing stopping them from lending that album out to friends who would often record a copy using dual tape decks, record-to-tape, etc. Music sharing has been going on since music first began being sold I imagine, and certainly people have been raiding each other's collections and making their own recordings since home stereos developed the tape deck w/ record feature. So sharing songs via touching phones, although much swifter and easier, isn't anything different than all that. Is it?

Let's all keep in mind that when Napster came on the scene the music industry was long overdue for a major change. They were comfortably selling CD's for $20 bucks a pop, most of which had one or two worthwhile songs and the rest was filler. Let's face it, they got the swift kick in the pants they deserved at the time. I'm not justifying the downloading that was done on such a massive scale, I'm saying it was inevitable.

Perhaps this person-to-person smart phone sharing is just the next phase of that same kick.

[2MuchMark]

I had an idea for this...

On the subway everyone is wearing headphones and bopping to their own tunes. It would be cool to temporarily, legally, stream your music to nearby players if you wanted to, to let others hear what you were listening to. It would be a fun way to discover new music, and make subway trekking a little more social. Users could then tag the song for purchase if they liked it. Maybe it could be shared with everyone in wireless range for quick impromptu subway dance parties.

[CDSmith]

Originally Posted by **********

I had an idea for this...

On the subway everyone is wearing headphones and bopping to their own tunes. It would be cool to temporarily, legally, stream your music to nearby players if you wanted to, to let others hear what you were listening to. It would be a fun way to discover new music, and make subway trekking a little more social. Users could then tag the song for purchase if they liked it. Maybe it could be shared with everyone in wireless range for quick impromptu subway dance parties.

I would think overriding other people's music they're trying to listen to would cause as many fistfights as it would dance parties.

Some folks can get real pissy about their tuneage.

[Webmaster Advertising]

Originally Posted by **********

I had an idea for this...

On the subway everyone is wearing headphones and bopping to their own tunes. It would be cool to temporarily, legally, stream your music to nearby players if you wanted to, to let others hear what you were listening to. It would be a fun way to discover new music, and make subway trekking a little more social. Users could then tag the song for purchase if they liked it. Maybe it could be shared with everyone in wireless range for quick impromptu subway dance parties.

An even better idea would be, to stream to other peoples devices the mobile porn I was currently watching at the time, thus allowing them to learn about some of the weirder, more freaky fetish websites out there so they can bookmark it and sign up later using my affiliate id

[Antonio]

Originally Posted by **********

I had an idea for this...

On the subway everyone is wearing headphones and bopping to their own tunes. It would be cool to temporarily, legally, stream your music to nearby players if you wanted to, to let others hear what you were listening to. It would be a fun way to discover new music, and make subway trekking a little more social. Users could then tag the song for purchase if they liked it. Maybe it could be shared with everyone in wireless range for quick impromptu subway dance parties.

I'm hoping for car-to-car communication in the near future, so you can talk to the drivers in front of you or behind you; that way you can tell the idiot in front of you that he's been driving with his flicker on for the past 20 kilometers, or tell the chick in the car behind you that you love her rack

[candyflip]

On a Samsung phone, both have to have a subscription to their Music Hub service. You're not sharing the file so much as you're saying, "Hey, check out this song that we both have access to because we're paying for streaming service".

There's no actual transfer of MP3s.

[d-null]

any music worth listening to is free anyways, fuck all the commercial bullshit garbage