Thank you, RIAA.
Big company takes down little company; little company releases technology that powered little companys product - to the world.
Oh, how beautiful the internet is.
Muxtape was effectively taken down by the RIAA on August 18, 2008.
Almost coincidentally, an open source technology called Opentape was released for public consumption - for free. Although Opentape claims no affiliation with the former Muxtape, there are many similarities.
Opentape is essentially a web technology that allows you to upload music to your web-server, and have that music displayed in a very pleasing, and easy to use interface. The setup only requires that you have server space, and that you know how to drag and drop files; the software does the rest.
So what has the RIAA undeniably opened up?
By shutting down Muxtape the RIAA has opened the flood gates for countless internet users to upload and share music for any & everyone. Unlike Muxtape, Opentape also allows any internet user to download the uploaded tracks.
I am in no way trying to imply that people will use this technology to pirate & distribute copyrighted music, but I am saying that trying to stop innovation has inevitably made the RIAA’s job a WHOLE lot harder. Instead of negotiating with one company and coming up with a deal which would have been lucrative for both, the RIAA has to now target each individual user for a takedown, if that user is infringing on their rights, of course.
Users just wanted a way to share music with people. The efforts of the RIAA did nothing but opened up Pandoras Box.
Because Opentape has made the software open source, it has ensured that the technology will never die. People are free to modify, share, and improve upon the technology as they choose.
RIAA-0 | Internet Culture-1
