Legally stick it to the Man

[Johnny Coli]

Swapping songs over the internet isn't legal, according to those Corporate Rock and Roll scumbags and their weasel lawyers. But swapping' em by mail still is.

 

Music CD swappers turn to snail mail

It may be a crime to swap digital music over the Internet, but there's no law against doing it through the Postal Service. That's the theory behind La La Media Inc., an Internet start-up that encourages music lovers to trade tunes by mail.

[snip]

Members publish ''have" lists of the music CDs they own. Because so many music lovers copy their CDs to their computers, lala.com provides software that can generate a list of albums on a computer's hard drive.

 

In addition, users can log into the Lala website and type in the names of the albums in their collections. Users also create ''want" lists of CDs they'd like to own. Lala members can then search each other's lists.

 

Members also get postage-paid mailing envelopes suitable for shipping CDs.

 

When a member sees a desired disk, he puts in a request for it. The owner can say no. But if the owner is willing, he or she drops the disk into an envelope, addresses it to the other member, and mails it. The recipient pays Lala $1, plus 49 cents for postage. There is no annual membership fee.

 

The filthy corporate pigs telling you what you can and can't do with music you already purchased haven't weighed in on this yet.

The music industry, which says Internet music swapping has cost it billions in profits [!@#$ liars!], hasn't taken a stand on the legality of Lala.com's business model. A spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America refused to comment.

 

The idea is to send out the original CD to the person that wants it, which is perfectly legal. Then it is up to you to wipe the tunes off your drive ( ).

Of course, a Lala member could swap away his old CDs while keeping digital copies on his hard drive or portable music player -- probably a violation of copyright law.

 

Lala can't prevent people from doing this, but in a message on the website, Nguyen urges customers to delete their digital copies of the albums they've traded away [ ]. ''I ask you to do your part by doing the right thing: remove songs from your iPod or PC if you've agreed to send the CD to another member," he writes.

 

But it's not clear if Lala users will follow Nguyen's advice. Asked whether he was deleting all copies of his swapped CDs, Sanders replied, ''It's something I don't really feel comfortable answering one way or the other."

 

We all know where this is heading....freaking burning whole songlists and swapping 'em around without the beady eyes of the faceless Corporate a-holes hunting you down like you're some kind of criminal. They'll catch on eventually, and you can be damn sure that because the CDs are going through the mail it will be considered that much more egregious. But until then, !@#$ them.

 

LaLa.com is invite only right now, but if you let them know you're interested they are giving out more invites in the near future. Not sure when the general public launch will be. Until then, start stocking up on blank CDs.

[Pete]

could someone send me an invite to lala please? !@#$ the corporate bureaucrats!