Grooveshark, TV and Malaysia
Grooveshark
What that is applicable to illegal movie streaming site
does, in principle, work in music streaming sites as well. Grooveshark is one
such site, which is popular and provides free streaming of music even without
the need of registration. This service appears to be legal to the user, even
though the contents of the site may be as illegal is Kino.to's. Grooveshark's
operators have never possessed the rights to the songs and had presumably
uploaded hundreds of thousands of MP3s themselves. They had been in loggerheads
with many music labels since 2007, and by 2011 notable labels like Universal,
Sony and Warner have filed complaints and lawsuits against Grooveshark. Mobile
versions of it were taken off the Apple App Store and Google Play. In Germany,
Grooveshark has been blocked GEMA, a performance rights organisation, on
grounds that Grooveshark never had any licensing in the country.
But is Grooveshark an illegal service? Not yet, apparently,
as there is no higher decree saying that it really is. On April 18th 2011,
Grooveshark’s Senior VP of external affairs, Paul Geller, released an open
letter to the music industry explaining how Grooveshark is legal, even though
it's not completely licensed. "There is a distinction between legal and
licensed," read the letter. "Laws come from Congress. Licenses come
from businesses. Grooveshark is completely legal because we comply with the
laws passed by Congress, but we are not licensed by every label (yet).We are a
technology company, and we operate within the boundaries of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA). Some would have you believe that those
of us who use the DMCA to innovate are inherently infringers and that claiming
Safe Harbour under the DMCA is as good as admitting guilt. Not so."
The Digital
Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA).
Grooveshark has been skirting the edge of copyright
infringement by relying on their users to follow guidelines when uploading.
Their terms of service outlines that no user content shall be illegal or
obscene, and it's their policy to honour all takedown requests that comply with
the DMCA and other IP laws. They even have a web-based DMCA takedown tool to
help content owner manage material on Grooveshark and to work with them in
taking down possible infringed content.
Sites streaming TV content also lead a very shadowy
existence, as distribution of TV signals is not consistent with the law. But us
agencies did bring notice to the world by shutting down 307 websites, in one
shot, on the 2nd of February. Among the sites shut down were 16 illegal TV
streaming sites, including Firstrowsports.com. This large operation, codenamed
"Operation Fake Sweep", was part of a massive campaign against
Internet piracy, as well as to curb illegal distribution of files and software
and consumer products.
P2P-TV Recorder
Users who viewed these sites, though, are not under threat,
as TV broadcasters would only take action against the illegal site operators —
if they ever do take any action at all. P2P-TV tools, where one end would
receive the actual TV signal, are a harder infringement to define, as the
actual broadcasting and receiving of broadcast do actually take place. Still,
as according to Marion Janke, one does not just infringe on the copyright but
also on the broadcasting right. According to her, the claims for
indemnification are still implausible, since the costs for the TV broadcasters
would be much more than the incurred damages.
Either way, you'll be fine so long you view content on legal
streaming sites, which we've detailed. The question, of course, is whether it's
considered legal or not if your country has denied access to it? You may
remember the incident reported in June 11th, 2011, that 10 file-sharing sites
had been blocked by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission
(MCMC). Most of these sites are still up and have yet to have gotten into legal
trouble, and access to them can easily be bypassed with a proxy, but are they
still legal to access and utilise? There seems to be no law directly
prohibiting it, though the best way to look at it is to take things on the
whole and look at it in a content perspective, and not too much on the service.
Perhaps the best way is to be simply educated on the grounds of copyright
infringement.
Legal services
Megaupload, Kino.to and the sites blocked by MCMC history,
but there are still a variety of alternative online music portals and streaming
sites which you can use while legally secure.
File Hosting
Music Portals
Film/TV ( not
entirely available in Malaysia)
Not being a pirate is still hardly possible
Grooveshark is one
of the most favourited music sites on the Web, but is now facing major lawsuits
from various record labels
We take ourselves back to the beginning, and ask ourselves
again: are we all pirates? We may be, perhaps. It's indubitable, in this age of
the Internet, and we have, at least, pirated something once, whether we're
aware of it or not. The harmless MP3 shared between friends, the video streamed
on a random site, the YouTube videos which we've downloaded... we've all done
that, somehow. Copyright violations are not petty offences, but they may seem
to be. Either way, a true and clear-cut definition of that fine line between
legal and illegal needs to be further thickened. We stand on a legally-unclear
area, which is hardly helpful.
The cases we've touched upon shows that it's no longer easy
to use the web without somehow infringing upon copyrights. Yes, innocent acts
performed out of ignorance could be just as serious as a blatant act of illegal
downloading. The simple solution is to redefine that legality line, but that
may prove to be difficult, as evident today.
No, perhaps the solution is not on the legality of things,
but really on the way content can be reached and distributed to the masses.
Online music distribution sites like ¡Tunes are on the right path; the problem
is actually putting this attractiveness across other services. The fact shown
is this: users are willing to pay for content: the content just has to be here
fast, whole and without fuss. "The content industry caters to the demand
an offer that reliably makes all movies, series, songs, games and texts
available at the same time as their first publishing even with flat rate. This
is surely better than piracy", says Tim Renner.
This is particularly more crucial in the Malaysian context.
It's no mystery that Malaysia is a piracy-driven country, where the act is
already ingrained as part of our culture, if not a culture itself. It didn't
help that we've been restricted and constrained by various licensing and
censorship issues. Content available to the world may not be available to us,
and not everyone can afford the arduous and expensive process of shipping
something in. Even the purchase of original products fall pale compared to the
ease, cheapness and readiness of pirated copies. What we need may not be
stricter law and bigger Internet censorship. What we need is Hulu and Netflix.
But till this become available to us, or made easier to the
world, replacements for Megaupload and Kino.to will take place. And once you
cut out a stream, another will be found. Private networks and the Darknet will
gain more popularity. The line of legality may continue to blur, or new grey
zones will crop.
This will be a never-ending cycle, an Ouroboros serpent of
the digital world. Till then, what's most pertinent is learning how to identify
that grey line, learning the places that are safe to step, and knowing how you
can defend yourself when you are wrongly charged. And, perhaps, actually really
do stop being a pirate.
