Last month I wrote about a lawsuit filed by major record label EMI against Seeqpod, the questionably-legal free streaming music site. The suit isn’t Seeqpod’s first (Warner sued them last year), but it is notable for taking the music industry’s war against the web to a new low. Beyond naming a number of Seeqpod executives as part of the suit, EMI also decided to sue a hapless third party developer named Ryan Sit, who happened to use the Seeqpod API in one of his projects. Now Sit is being forced to shut down one of his projects – a lifestreaming service dubbed Swurl that launched last summer.
I’ll leave the legality of Seeqpod for the courts to decide (the site doesn’t actually host any music files – it finds them scattered on pages across the web and streams them into its media player). But as I wrote last month, its case against Ryan Sit is ridiculous. Sit is a prolific developer who uses many APIs from different web services, and used Seeqpod’s API just as dozens of similar sites have before him. Suing him sets a precedent that could make developers wary of using any API, for fear that the service they’re tapping into could be doing something potentially illegal.
Swurl allowed users to generate their own personal blogs using data imported from other web-based services. Sit acknowledges that the site, which he cofounded with Jonathan Neddenriep, didn’t receive as much traction as they’d hoped. But the more immediate reason for the shutdown is the lawsuit. Pet projects tend to become less fun when you’ve got a rabid team of lawyers gunning for you.
Here’s the notice that now greets users on Swurl:
Hello Swurlers,
We built Swurl as two guys doing something we love in our spare time.
Unfortunately, due to the pressures of our day jobs and other
distractions, we can no longer support or maintain the service at the
level that we think our users deserve.Building Swurl has been a great experience for us. We want to thank
all of the folks that used Swurl as a way to document their lives
online and share with their friends and families. Thanks a bunch to
those users that gave us lots of valuable feedback and encouragement.Thanks,
Ryan & Jonathan
PS You can also check out our other work at: http://picclick.com
http://www.optinnow.org
Do your stories actually generate any positive pressure for these guys?
Unbelievable. I just hope that MA’s predictions (see his post from a couple of days ago) come true soon and I even hope more that the current practices will bite the music giants cold in the ass once their then changed business models will depend on the online platforms they are sewing now to promote their crap.
These guys should open-source their code now! That would be fun, and their work would not be lost.
The record companies should get it over with and just sue the entire online population. They do after all use Google, and everyone knows that you can pretty much use Google to find free music as easily as typing in a simple query
-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(mp3) “Coldplay”
into Google
I see no reason at all for the -inurl:(htm|html|php). That is basically saying that “if some random guy has a huge collection of Coldplay mp3s but is serving them under pirate.example/getstuff.php?artist=coldplay”, I don’t want it.
The reason has to do with what Google and other search engines are more likely to index and which ones it may not.
Brilliant! May change the way I search for music.
I, the Queen of Spam from Delhi, decree that “The record companies should get it over with” That’s it. No need to consider this any longer. I’ve spoken.
goat smelly spammer,
from you know where
Get over yourself!
I really wish Techcrunch would implement an ignor feature so that I could ignore you.
You are a coward that posts after every single one of my comments on Techcrunch, with spam that has nothing to do with the original article, and instead seeks to degrade and disparage me with racially motivated and at times blatantly misogynistic language.
What in the world is your problem? Are you just so incapable of making an intelligent comment to an article that you have to spam others that do? If you are an idiot, at least keep your mouth shut, and people may give you the benefit of the doubt …
Anjali Sen
Smelly, it is called “freedom of speech” – if you write inane, ignorant comments pretending that you-know-it-all, we all have the right to call you on that….
Frankly, every time you post a comment you actually show your ignorance, stupidity and also condescension and disrespect for TC readers.
Go back to your smelly cave, where you belong!
@Anjali – Sorry, but your many comments do amount to spam and your attitude is indeed reprehensible. Please tone down your comments, It seems that you are the only one on TC using such a terrible language.
Please stop embarrassing us.
Pradeep Malhotra
I agree with Pradeep, your behaviour is shameful and not becoming to a properly raised Indian lady. Please reflect on your purposes and respect this open forum.
Thank you.
Dear Dumbass=”Pradeep Mlhotra”=”Bina Mukherjee”
Your stupid attempts to post under Indian aliases is not fooling anyone. No Indian would say “conduct becoming to”, they would say “conduct becoming of”.
If you have anything of intelligence to say about the Seeqpod API or how advanced Google query strong can also be used to find music online, then I am sure TC readers will welcome your views.
Stop spamming TC. I come here to read and contribute to intelligent conversations about technology, not to deal with idiot spammers like you.
Anjali Sen
@DumbUglySpammerAreNotSexyButStupid, @Bina Mukherjee, @Pradeep,
Retards, stop spamming. This is ridiculous. If you can’t stand some people’s comments, then just ignore them. Why make such silly and cheap fuss out of it. You are a disgrace to your fellow countrymen.
@Babes
You and your three masturbating followers are retarded spammers. You prove this over and over again with your incredibly ignorant comments.
You know nothing and all you are trying to do is get more traffic for your sorry blog. TC readers are way more intelligent than you think, if you think.
Stop the spam.
@Anjali Sen = moronic ugly monkey douche bag
@Dumbassuglysmellyspammer,
Stop spamming, retard.
I just want favtape back.
Suing developers just for using third party APIs is ridiculous
Fight the power Ryan! Fight the power! My fist is in the air for you.
In other great record industry news,
UK users blocked from watching music videos on Youtube
Monday March 9, 8:09 pm ET
By Raphael G. Satter, Associated Press Writer
Google says to block British users from watching music videos on YouTube in royalties dispute
LONDON (AP) — Google Inc. said Monday it will block U.K. users from watching music videos on its popular video-sharing site YouTube after negotiations with Britain’s music royalty-collecting body broke down.
Google said it would begin blocking British users starting Monday night. The Internet titan said it knew the move would cause “significant disappointment.”
This is a new low for you, posting a comment that looks like an article from Techcrunch writers.
You are a retarded uglydumassspammer
Michael Arrington, please ban this idiot spammer from polluting the comments thread with his offensive posts.
I will get on this, and plug you…. errr, erase the spammers from TC. I hope you understand that we respect freedom of speech and that banning spammers would also mean that you will be banished too. Which I believe it would be a good thing.
Stop spamming TC.
@ Uglydumassspammer,
Stop spamming, you idiot of an ass.
Hello, for a long time now I come to TC to read interesting articles and comments.
But what I see here in the last time from *Uglydumassspammer and his friend *Dumbassuglysmellyspammer is not acceptable and also they can not hide behind freedom of speach!
These persons, normally I would say gentlemen, but in my opinion theiy are not gentlemen, should take the time to read the description of ‘Freedom of Speech’ on wikipedia.
In my understanding Freedom of Speech ends at this point wehre other persons are deliberately offended!
You both persons …*, that did have not the opportunity to learn to respectfully treat other humans, I suggest to crawl back under the rock you are comming from.
I suggest further more not to bother others with your street language, by hiding behind ’stealth names’ and ‘Freedom of Speech’!
You see it is possible to express what you think ‘WITHOUT’ to offend sombody, but only if you are educated and respect other peoples opinion.
Cheers!
Stories like this make me think about going back to file sharing for my music.
Maybe I don’t understand this. Do you expect that if you do something that is most likely illegal that the people that you are financially hurting are not going to come after you because you don’t like their business model? Interesting theory. While I agree with you 100% that the model is doomed for the scrap heap, it is still the law. Given the record industry’s history, why would you dream that they wouldn’t come after you?
I don’t follow. If the API is illegal (not making a determination there), developers shouldn’t be using it. And they should be evaluating themselves whether or not it is illegal.
I don’t see why you could say that Seeqpod could be illegal, but — at the same time — they should be allowed to backdoor its legality by encouraging third parties to spread its functionality. Nor do I see why developers should be allowed to be lazy just because there is code out there.
Code needs to be evaluated for coyrights and any number of other legal issues (in addition to practical and other issues). Just because its related to music sharing doesn’t make it any different.
So if I build an RSS reader and a company like Seeqpod exposes illegal content via an RSS based API which users sync using my RSS reader. You’re saying that it should be ok for a company like EMI to sue me as the creator of the feed reader used to aquire content illegally?
Read: “If the API is illegal (not making a determination there)…”
I think it’s your job to do your homework and make good decisions. I think it’s your job to defend yourself legally if you think it’s legal. I think it’s your job to read.
I don’t think you should cry about hypotheticals just because you want to.
Additionally, your hypothetical isn’t even this scenario, doesn’t make sense: Seeqpod isn’t being sued because they created an API that was used downstream by anoher party in an illegal way. Seeqpod’s usage is probably illegal. The dev’s usage is “less illegal” but could potential be used illegally and he has already created another company/product that was highly questionable, demonstrating a history to jump into murky ground, and painting a target on his own back.
What you’re saying is that any geek with skills to code should get a degree in Business law just to be able to code for fun.
I say – get a life.
If Ryan were to say “it’s just for fun personal use” fine. Unfortunately, Ryan has more companies than he has pairs of underwear.
What.. can’t take it huh??
I don’t understand this.
i also don’t understand.
While I agree that developers have a responsibility to vet the content they use, and that companies have the right to defend their profitability through legal channels, I do think it is unfortunate for everyone that money is being wasted by failing companies in order to prevent new companies from prospering.
Does it help that the company in question was a lame attemt to copycat another successful comany, Tumblr, by being cheap and lazy and using someone else’s API? There was no innovation or chance of prospering here.
Dude… You don’t know that… Mashups are great ways to explore new ideas without having to build a bunch of complex stuff from scratch.
Actually, I do know. I tried it. I was not impressed. I saw nothing compelling new. No one is lamenting it’s loss in any significant way.
Thus the depression we are falling into. Those with power and money are trying to block progress, slowing or soon to stop our economy.
Those who can’t survive are killing us. Auto, UAW, Newspapers, music industry, ….should I go on?
Damn…..those muthatruckers music label corporates! I was just thinking about moving my blog over to swurl. I think swurl had some really good idea’s in aggregating streams of content.
One thing people seldom realize is that what is printed here on TC doesn’t effect anything. It’s entertainment, which is why AOL was going to buy TC from Arrington. It’s almost like TMZ but for geeks.
This is real for Ryan. He had to pull his website down and has to go through the desisting procedure.
Never forget that you only report on the news. You don’t effect it!
Your like Obe wan when he watched Darth Maul cut apart Qui-Gon
http://www.yout...h?v=LAEwXWZvON0
such is the life of a blogger.
As someone being sued by Corbis for using an image on a demo site (of a house) I certainly understand the emotions. I was billed 500 pounds (about 700 dollars) by Bakers and McKenzie just for the initial “legal fees” in sending a letter to me alleging I had an unauthorised image.
Read something about copyright and image lawsuits at the Guardian: http://www.guar...net-photography
Google corbis baker mckenzie.
Trevor,
you can’t have a *whole* lot of money to do this, but if they get you for over 50k, apply for a visa to some 3rd world country, like Honduras or something.
Stay there for 6 months to become a resident, and then declare bankruptcy. Come back and your credit will still be clean.
As for America, unlike Great Britain, solicitors here can not ask for legal fees until they win, and then they are mitigated by a judge to a reasonable level.
McLibel for example could never happen here. When Tyler Cavel, the Quebec Or president’s son threatened Mike, he found out shortly after that the jurisdiction would be California and desisted.
British countries like Canada, and GB have excessive legal rights for the rich and close to none for those with less money. Not that it doesn’t happen in America as well, but here there are more safeguards in our constitution because our constitution was not written by the bourgeois(hand me downs of the house of lords, monarchy)
Hope this helps.
disclaimer: My above suggestion is without warranty or fitness of use.
Solicitors can ask what they like, but You don’t have to pay anything unless you lose under English law. Also, we don’t have punative damages, so the damages asked for have to actually reflect losses unlike our friends across the pond…
NB – this isn’t legal advice either
I’m amazed they haven’t targetted blip.fm (which I enjoy) for the same reason.
The music industry is getting more anti-fan and anti-artist everyday it seems.
Don’t sign to labels. Record labels are evil. Every last one of them.
The record labels can’t die fast enough as far as I’m concerned. Musical talent, (the ones who “get it” – which seem to be few and far between…maybe due to naivety?), need to take control of what they create, and distribute their works in ways that best benefit THEIR careers. Fuck the suits at EMI, Universal, Sony et al. The music matters, and is what compels concert goers, merchandise buyers and the like.
That which compels and engages IS the marketing platform. The labels will NEVER get that (greed). Unfortunately, they seem to still be adept at conning the artists to buy into their flawed strategy. I hated “Forrest Gump”, but it did produce a quote that fits here: stupid is as stupid does.
We shouldn’t be surprised that the labels are wreaking their wrath on 3rd party developers. It’s Record Label Rape and Pillage 2.0. I feel awful for Ryan, and for anyone else who is simply trying to facilitate something cool for his/her user base. What a shame!
I share Michael Arrington’s hope that the current label self-destructs in the near term. But hope for this is firmly in the hands of the artists who create what we want to hear, and how agile they can be at forcing change.
And the band played on….at least until they got a C&D…
Learn to hum and keep sharp bodyguards. Right.
F#CK THE RIAA
The problem is the tactics used by record labels. I’m a tech person and have made my living off of tech, but, just as in the U.S. court system, ignorance is not a viable defense.
The developer had to know the value of the data/content through the api — that’s why he took the time to add it to his product.
Again, I work in tech, each day I vet the business risks, not just the technical risks, of products and more importantly integrations.
This is perfectly fine precedent. It is a holier than thou attitude, an elitist, attitude to think it is not. That being said, the tactics that the labels take benefit no one, but their own pocket. They are the real culprit.
The word is “leery” or “wary” — not “weary”.
there’s a shocker
I sympathize with these guys – but wouldn’t you question what you do to ensure that someone won’t be knocking on your front door?
I don’t develop as much as I used to, but whenever I needed something and found “free” code, I was paranoid to the point of looking at the code from many angles to ensure that if I used it it would not come back to haunt me.
When it comes to music – I’d think a dozen times before using ANY API since you never know what the labels are thinking… admittedly this is hard if your project is built on a specific foundation or industry.
But music and the internet definately DO NOT MIX right now and any developer has to be cautious about what they use and do with their projects.
Too bad about swurl. It had a nice interface.