Hatrack River Forum: Sharing a stranger's toons -- TunA

This is topic Sharing a stranger's toons -- TunA in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Zalmoxis (Member # 2327) on :

Okay, so I'm not a major techie, and I don't do peer-to-peer or even own an MP3 player, butthis file sharing program/product sounds totally cool.

Basically it uses wi-fi to let you view the playlist on someones elses MP3 player and then listen to what they're listening to.

What do ya'll think? Would you TunA?

Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :

maybe.. if it were legal. [Razz]

(edit: subjunctive!)

[ December 04, 2003, 03:18 PM: Message edited by: Annie ]

Posted by Mephistopheles (Member # 3250) on :

I like my tuna from a can, not a mit.

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

Actually, that's a very borderline device. It may in fact be legal. If it is legal, there's a high chance it doesn't even require licensing as a radio station (which can get a tad expensive).

The main problem wouldn't be with the listening in this case, that's pretty clearly covered by numerous rulings allowing one to listen to someone else's radio and such. The problem is with the ephemeral copy it generates on your own hardware. Perhaps it would be alleviated if its a pure stream with little buffering, but that would be for the courts to decide.

However, it wouldn't actually be "illegal" in the sense of a criminal act. It would be "illegal" in the sense of a copyright infringement, which is a civil violation on that scale.

I'm betting its neither of those, however, and would be covered under fair use. Usually the way it works is: if a court case hasn't allowed it, use of it is de facto enforceable as a civil violation, regardless of legality. In this case, however, I could see a very strong argument that court cases have allowed this sort of listening. I think it is currently legal.

Posted by Rappin' Ronnie Reagan (Member # 5626) on :

iTunes has a feature that allows you to listen to the playlists of other people on your network. It seems that this is very similar to what TunA is, and I'm sure Apple made very sure that putting that capability in iTunes wasn't illegal.

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

Moreso they made it so that capability would ensure not being sued by vetting it through the rights holders, making it de facto legal.