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Thursday, June 30, 2005

iTunes, Grokster and Podcasting - joys and dangers abound—UPDATED

I’m very happy to see Podcasting embraced by Apple (albiet I’d prefer it if they didn’t embrace it too tightly and allowed it a little more freedom of movement, bit that’s another post). The big question to me is: Does the iTunes store, as a transport and delivery medium, need to watch out for copyright infractions of it’s users?

How does Apple track if the broadcast fairly uses copyrighted material, whether it be audio, music or photos?

I’m not a lawyer so I don’t have a real idea on how the recent Supreme Court decision applies to systems outside the P2P sphere.

It may be that the analogy doesn’t really fit - iTunes uses a centralized server offers files for downloading and isn’t exactly a P2P since individual users can’t download without violating the iTunes Terms of Service. I’m sure the Apple “TOS” on iTunes is tight, on the user and creator ends, might cover this - they’ve got the best designers and some of the best lawyers in the biz (as long as a the CEO doesn’t give anything away ).

Still, we’re talking about the RIAA and the MPAA - I’d watch my back.

# UPDATE # - On this week’s “Click Online”, the BBC makes the point that a company is not in trouble if it merely learns that it’s software has been used to facilitate theft. I still see a problem if, after the company learns this, it does not act or acts insufficiently to defend itself against charges of continuing theft.