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Amazon Is Going Girl Talk

Amazon is not even giving a fuck, is what I mean. The company unveiled its cloud-based music streaming service a few days ago and, kinda like the world's number one copyright pirate, is begging for the lawsuit wrath of the major labels by not getting...

Amazon is not even giving a fuck, is what I mean. The company unveiled its cloud-based music streaming service a few days ago and, kinda like the world’s number one copyright pirate, is begging for the lawsuit wrath of the major labels by not getting additional licenses.

Honestly, the label position just sounds silly (if you’re not a lawyer or copyright transpotter). Amazon’s Cloud Drive/Player simply allows users to upload their (their) music to the cloud, and stream it from whatever device wherever, whenever. Which is pretty cool and expected—Apple and Google should be unveiling similar things in the near future. A song in this system is still a “unique” entity in the cloud, and it’s difficult to perceive what makes that so much different than me right now streaming, er, playing, a song off of my hard drive.

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As a music consumer, you’re likely to perceive that it’s none of the record companies’ goddamn business where you keep your music, but they strongly disagree. A stream is different: it’s like making a bunch of unauthorized copies, the labels argue. You’re not supposed to be able to redownload files you buy from Amazon or iTunes, and a stream isn’t a download, as we all know, but the industry thinks differently. And isn’t this music on the internet? Of course then Cloud Drive, somehow, in some yet to be defined way, will lead to piracy. Right?

Who even knows but, in principle, the answer would be no. The question ultimately boils down to what rights you have to your own music, if, under copyright law, you’re allowed to have the kind of mobility and such that cloud-streaming allows. In the case of MP3.com, which offered a very similar service to Amazon’s, the courts decided in favor of the labels, resulting in a massive judgment against the company.

The problem is that copyright law just doesn’t have the language to even deal with this issue properly. I know, you know, Amazon knows, the labels know, that streaming a song you paid for from the web doesn’t constitute making “mechanical copies.” Streaming didn’t exist when the law that’s being used to harsh on streaming was written. It’s an anachronism, but it’s one that record labels see dollar signs in.

Related:
The DJ Is Dead; Long Live The DJ: How the Cloud Is Changing Music
RIP Drop.io: When Part of the Cloud Just Floats Away

Reach this writer at michaelb@motherboard.tv.