How to mess with the RIAA part 1: When Muxtape gets shut down, develop an open source alternative to move the issue from one central location to a whole host of different locations. It’s called OpenTape, and it’s already here.

When Muxtape, the online mixtape sharing website went out of commission last week due to “a problem with the RIAA”, it surprised almost no-one. The site was brilliant for music lovers, allowing them to share a mixtape online with strangers, and in turn listen to other people’s selections. However, it wasn’t quite so good for the content owners, with them not seeing a bean from the service, and there also being an easy way of not only listening, but also downloading the songs on the site. So the RIAA stepped in.

I’ve been mourning the site for the past week, although Grooveshark has been helping me get over it. But now, according to SitePoint, there is an alternative to Muxtape, called OpenTape, which as the name suggests is an open source clone of Muxtape.

OpenTape is different than Muxtape in just one way: you host your own mixtape on your own website or server rather than in one central place. OpenTape Version 0.1 is now available, and can be downloaded in Zip format from Opentape.fm.

Straight off the bat, it’s important to remember that OpenTape is no more legal than it’s forefather, and in effect, all it does is distribute the illegality of hosting copyrighted content from one central company to a multitude of individuals. But that in itself could prove to be a problem for the RIAA, who instead of having to chase up and prosecute one set of people, will now have to go after everyone who installs OpenTape on their server.

While fears over getting into legal difficulties could prevent many people from using OpenTape, I suspect there’ll be enough takers to ensure the RIAA has a huge problem on its hands.

Other than the legal aspects of OpenTape, my only problem with it is that without the central location to compile everybody’s mixtapes, there is no way for me to discover new tracks. Unless I happen to inadvertently stumble across someone’s mixtape, I haven’t a clue where to begin. Until, of course, someone creates a program to track where the OpenTapes end up.

OpenTape has clearly been developed to annoy the RIAA in light of its shut-down of Muxtape, and I can see it easily managing to succeed in that task.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 4:52 pm under Internet, Legal, Open source, Opinion, Piracy.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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