Google wades into EMI, MP3tunes, fight
p2pnet view Music | P2P:- Cloud computing is “location independent computing, whereby shared servers provide resources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand, as with the electricity grid”, says the Wikipedia.
Is it real, or only make believe? Google has bet on the former, putting its money where its mouth is by supporting MP3tunes’ Michael Robertson in his on-going battle with Big 4 music gang member EMI.
“This will be a defining case about the future of cloud services” Robertson told p2pnet.
His MP3tunes offers a personal music locker and runs a search engine called Sideload.com.
EM I doesn’t like it, so it’s trying to sue him out of existence.
Except Robertsons isn’t cooperating.
When, more than three years ago, EMI filed a lawsuit against MP3tunes in New York, he said he’d learned about it “from calls I received late Friday afternoon from Dow Jones, Reuters, and Bloomberg. Filing late on Friday is a common tactic to make sure the other side has little/no time to comment. I indicated I couldn’t really comment on the lawsuit against MP3tunes since I hadn’t even read it.”
That was in September last year.
In November, “EMI may be dying, but its lawsuits linger on”, said p2pnet, continuing, “Is it destined to become another Bronfman toy? While we wait to find out, EMI isn’t only continuing its attack against Michael Robertson of earlier MP3.com and Linspire fame, it appears to have escalated it.
“Robertson’s answer? ‘I’m working right now on video responses to EMI’s exhibits”, he told p2pnet. ‘It’s a battle of the videos’!”
More recently, he uncovered “great new evidence” of how EMI which, with fellow cartel members Vivendi Universal, Warner Music and Sony Music has been calling its own customers ‘criminals” and “thieves” for sharing online, has, incredibly, been telling people to download free MP3s EMI itself uploaded to Rapidshare, targeted by the Big 4 as a major facilitator of ‘illegal’ file sharing.
Now, “Can the media companies derail the next generation of cloud services?” – Robertson asks, noting, “Since Google has bet their entire future on the cloud it’s not a surprise to see them supporting MP3tunes.”
When Google has asked for permission to file a friend-of-court amicus brief supporting him, predictably, EMI opposed it.
Its lawyers seem to “never miss an opportunity to fight, which is why this case has taken more than three years and millions of dollars”, says Robertson, adding, “Fortunately the judge allowed Google to file a brief .
“Google joins EFF, Consumer Electronics Association and Public Knowledge in filing a brief in support of MP3tunes’ and our personal cloud service. EMI also opposed their brief but the judge allowed that as well.”
EMI, meanwhile, is, once again predictably, looking to the MPAA, RIAA and ASCAP for back-up.
Stay tuned.
September last year – xxxx, January, 2011
another Bronfman toy – Citigroup wins EMI punch-up, November 8, 2010
p2pnet – EMI v Robertson: ‘battle of the videos’, November 23, 2010
great new evidence – EMI uses Rapidshare, says MP3tunes, December 2, 2010
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan
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