The major records are certainly a litigious lot. And come to that, they’ve never really been comfortable with the idea of the internet in general. Their new lawsuit against the music search application SeeqPod (www.seeqpod.com) is a good example of this:
SeeqPod is a simple search engine, like Google, Yahoo, or any of the others. The only difference is, SeeqPod searches exclusively for media content — i.e. music and videos, and streams the result directly from their search results page. A nifty idea, and one that is akin to online radio, except the user gets to search for whatever they want, not simply wait for the next song and hope they like it.
SeeqPod does not allow users to download the music tracks and videos it finds, they are only streamed online. However, it does allow registered users to save playlists and even share playlists with friends. And it could be this “sharing” aspect of the site that is sticking in the throat of the major record labels. A suit has been filed against SeeqPod requesting millions in “damages” for unfair use of intellectual property.
There’s only one flaw in the music industry’s plan to sue SeeqPod out of existence: they’re not doing anything illegal.
The Digital Millennium Copyright act clearly allows all search engines to report the existence of any file accessible online, without being held accountable for the legality of said file. And this is exactly how it should be. Can you imagine if Google was held responsible for the legality of every single web site it catalogs online? That’s absurd at best, and it would virtually shut down the Internet as we know it.
And this, in a nutshell, is why the record labels will lose this one, and lose big. Basically, if SeeqPod can be sued for the files it “finds” online, so can Google, and Yahoo, and Ask, and Microsoft, and…well, you get the picture. The internet would be a pretty barren place if such ridiculous laws were allowed to stand.
So, if it is clear to any interested observer that the recording industry is fighting a battle here that they cannot possible win, why exactly are they doing it? That’s the million-dollar question, and journalists and industry experts seem just as perplexed about the rationale of the suit as anyone else.
Perhaps the major label music companies have become so lawsuit-happy since the dawn of the Internet era, that it is simply a knee-jerk reaction; when faced with any new technology or challenge, their policy has become “sue first, ask questions later.” Whatever the reason, one thing is for certain: the music industry has some serious “control issues,” and they’re wasting serious money here on a lawsuit they can’t win.
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Comment by Claude Gelinas — July 4, 2008 @ 8:50 am