liz_marcs: (Reaper2_Banksy)
liz_marcs ([personal profile] liz_marcs) wrote2007-04-05 01:37 pm

The Future of Music from the Cube Posts

Well, whaddya know. My long search for an embeddable music player that will allow you to create playlists and will also be accepted by LJ has finally paid off.

Truth to tell, I'm kind of relieved about this. There have been several emails over the past two months which have made me increasingly wary about offering MP3s for download (the most recent was a most interesting email regarding my post on Marshall Crenshaw — and no, it was not anyone associated with the artist). It appears my Music from the Cube posts have popped up on too many people's radar outside of LJ-land and off my FList.

While no one has threatened legal action (yet), I suspect the day is coming when someone will.

As a result, I have to start considering a limited set of options (in order of preference):

  • Start friends-locking my Music from the Cube posts
  • Create a friends-only community where I Am Queen providing all the posts and the downloads
  • Stop the Music from the Cube posts altogether


Using Imeem to embed a playlist helps me avoid making any of those choices. Number one: There's no chance in hell I'll get dinged for violating any laws since it's streaming media that I (in theory) own. Two: I'll be able to (in theory) provide the entire CD for your listening pleasure.

Now, I'll still offer MP3s for download for mixes and soundtracks, so there's no plans to change that at all. I think if worst comes to worst, I can argue fair use in that case (Can someone familiar with the DMCA let me know if that's the case?). However, if I've got all these Music from the Cube posts with live downloads on top of a various mixes that expire after 30 to 60 days...ummmm...that's gonna be hard to explain away.

Anyway, I'm throwing up a test embedded paylist. Let me know what y'all think:

[identity profile] rileysaplank.livejournal.com 2007-04-05 10:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Bearing in mind that my legal knowledge is ten years old now I know that within the UK when I did study law the wording mentioned "two or more, paying or non-paying, people" under copyright. How you interpret the "two or more" would be the crux here.

[identity profile] liz-marcs.livejournal.com 2007-04-05 11:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Just trying to figure out DCMA makes my head hurt, no matter what. It pretty much goes without saying that I know filesharing of copyrighted material is illegal in the U.S., and The Music from the Cube posts were most certainly in a bad position from that point of view.

Streaming the files is safer, legally speaking.

Like I said, all things being equal, I'd rather do downloads because there's minimal administration on my part to do that that. Using streaming actually requires a little bit more work.