Liable to Induce Infringement
Google adsense and MyMusicInc. (http://www.mymusicinc.com/home.htm). I clicked on one of my post pages that serve adsense ads and saw an ad for free music downloads. I typed in the url so as not to disturb my google TOS and arrived at MyMusicInc which claims that filesharing is 100% legal (http://www.mymusicinc.com/legal.htm) in Canada! and that file sharing tools (see Grokster) are legal in the U.S. What's simply amazing is that the site charges $25 to provide you with software to access p2p networks like kazaa.
Here's what Eliot Van Buskirk had to say about this site:
The fact that you paid $25 to some guy in Romania changes nothing except your bank account balance. Your potential legal risk of being sued by the RIAA for making music available for sharing is unchanged.
4 Comments:
I did some research on MyMusicInc and LimeWire. The program is illegal and the web site is a scam. A P2P program is like Napster, Kazaa; it allows you to download from another person’s computer. Often, this results in LOTS of spy ware, which you pick up because you’re connecting to who-knows-who to download your music. Some reviews I read for LimeWire say that it does a great job at filtering spy ware and virus’s, but that it isn’t perfect and some bugs still get through.
MyMuiscInc is pulling a fast one. You can download LimeWire for free from Download.com. Therefore, the creators of MyMusicInc prey off of people who don’t know that LimeWire is actually free. MyMusicInc has a special site that explains, “why they are legal,” but they don’t really get to the bottom line or put down any hard facts. They generalize and work around the edges in their wording. The homepage to MyMusicInc says that downloading music from them is free, EXCEPT you later learn that there is a processing fee AND THAT you enter your email address, name, and credit card # even before you can browse their music! Are you catching on yet? They don’t even explain how the program works until you pay them. They say that you’re only paying a “technical support fee.” I’ve seen this before. Basically, MyMusicInc makes it look like they created LimeWire so that you’ll pay them a fee, when in fact you can go elsewere and download it for free. The original creators of LimeWire put it up for free download at Download.com. Most likely some scam artist downloaded LimeWire from Download.com, drew up a web paged named MyMusicInc (notice the “Inc” is to “look” professional) and got people to pay him for software that is actually free. Some people try to pull this scam on eBay as well with different various freeware programs. Sometimes it’s not technically illegal, but it’s still a cheap scam.
From MyMusicInc “why we are legal” page they explain that you can use the program to download music that IS NOT copyrighted. They are scam artists, they try to give you a “rest assured” feeling. All mainstream music is copyrighted; therefore if you downloaded any popular music free, without the consent of the artist, you’re doing it illegally.
On top of this, when I Googled Limewire, some of the sites it produced were porn sites…basically, it’s a shady program.
I tried to sell some of my music online once. I mean my actual music that I wrote and recorded myself at home. I didn’t sell anything, but in the process of finding web sites to sell it on I learned a lot about MP3 distribution. With all the competition in the music industry it’s really hard for musicians to make money, especially if they don’t have a record deal. Many independent musicians offer free MP3 downloads to promote their band so that they can eventually make money or get a record deal. And even after they get a record deal, the record company takes %50 percent or more of the royalties from their CD and MP3 sales. Musicians make most of their money at live shows and by selling T-shirts, merchandise, etc. They make very little as it is from MP3 downloads except for the very most popular artists. So, cut the musicians (and yourself) some slack and just use a straightforward, reputable program like iTunes or Walmarts.com‘s music download program.
The US Federal Trade Commision cought up with MyMusicInc and here is an article about it:
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1719100916;fp;1024;fpid;3
Thaks for the info. about MyMusicInc. Likethey say, "there'sa sucker born every minute", and I was almost one of them had I not read your comments. I thank you again.
To allenm541,
you mentioned Kazaa and Limewire like they were the good guys. Did you know that Kazaa sold a "PRO" edition a couple of years ago? They claimed that it had no adware attached to it, but that they were NOT responsible if one of the programs included by other third party offerers included some adware in. I remember paying about $50 for the professional version, and they were correct, Kazaa PRO had no adware attached to it. But, it had several other sponsors' programs included and the program would not run unless the other programs were running also. One of the third party programs included was an infamous adware/spyware contributer. Brilliant Digital was the company's name. Try a google search on that name and see the bad revues that they have earned. As for limewire, I was told by a girl, that I assumed was informed, that limewire did not have any adware/spyware attached to it. I ran a couple good antivirus and anti-spyware programs earlier that evening. I downloaded and installed limewire, and before I could even run the program, I noticed my computer was running slower, and info was being transmitted to the internet, but I didn't have any browsers open. I ran an anti-spyware program again, this time it listed 133 malware traces. Each one had been modified at the same time as the limewire download.With these facts(and they are facts) in place, don't you feel sorta silly posting a comment about something you obviously know very little about?
I bought a subscription to mymusicinc a year ago for a female friend of mine who is housebound. Limewire is actually the program you download if you're running a MAC. The program for a PC is called "MP3ROCKET" I believe, I downloaded both and couldn't find adware on either program. I guess they have versions available when you pay for them that are adware free. Imagine that!! And the links to pornsites are addressed when you purchase the subscription, for an extra fee, downloading porn is activated, so it's above the board. If I was the owner of mymusicinc and viewed your post, I just might have you charged with "Defamation of Character", because you are commenting on a website that you have no clue about, and you already cost them at least one subscription, the person who posted the thank you for clueing him into the obvious scam. I was sorta wondering, where did you research your info from, a gossip chatroom?? Granted, the topic of the legality of downloading music is one of those topics that will never receive a solid resolution. In my opinion, rock stars are like pro sports stars, vastly overpaid for a vastly unprofessional talent. When I was a kid, concert tickets cost $10 or $20, now they're closer to $100. Is the talent 5 times better? Or, are they scamming the public just because they can? They get all the best chicks and dope, and they want all our money too. Let em schedule more concerts if they wanna buy some new grills with diamonds in the chicken wire, we can't download the concerts and at least people would see them working for their money, instead of just kicking back and getting fat and counting the royalties they receive for work they did 10 years ago. Just my humble opinion, but the stars knew about Napster before they recorded music. Now they're angry because somebody's getting something for free, the same thing they were doing BEFORE stardom hit them....
To the original blogger(even tho this blog is old, in it's way it's timeless)
Eliot Van Buskirk is a boob who represents a site that I had the misfortune to subscribe to, and that sites' claims were, at most bogus. I read about all the programs available on that site, that were exclusively theirs(generic re-branding of programs available anywhere online). A portion of them wouldn't install, and another portion were not worth using even if you installed them. I think Eliot is whining because somebody's offering a lifetime membership instead of asking for money every month like his site. Another big difference between the two sites is, mymusicinc has music, a big selection to download, where MP3.com suckered me in with the promise of great downloading programs and players that WERE false advertising and their music selection sucked also. I went there twice, once to signup and see what I had purchased, and the second time to see if maybe I had been delusional on my first visit and in reality they were a good site. I discovered that I was completely sane and sober, and MP3.com really did suck just as my memory recalled. To Eliot, adding Van to your name does not make you any more believable. Just maybe more popular in the limp-wrist neighborhood, but maybe that was your reason for it......mymusicinc got a bad rap here, but, unless you really do join, how are you gonna give a clear and honest opinion?? Just MY humble opinion........
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