Muxtape open source clone OpenTape | Hacker News Reader

Muxtape open source clone OpenTape

opentape.fm

51 pointsyan21 comments

Open source doesn't magically solve the copyright issues that are hurting Muxtape. Creative commons is the "open source" solution to that problem

I think they're trying for more of a "fight the power" kind of solution. If everybody and their brother is running OpenTape, shutting down web-based mixtapes becomes prohibitively difficult.

It may be instructive to see what the torrent community has done with the Hydra project.

After all, the Muxtape "code" was only one part that made it shine. It was the content that made the service so enjoyable.

If content could be backed up and retrieved across the Opentape network, that would be cool.

Are you running it yourself? :)

If everybody and their brother is running OpenTape, shutting down web-based mixtapes becomes prohibitively difficult.

That's what they said about P2P and RIAA is still suing hundreds and hundreds of people. Muxtape clones are gonna be even easier to shut down.

Muxtape clones are gonna be even easier to shut down.

Depends where they're hosted, doesn't it?

>>That's what they said about P2P and RIAA is still suing hundreds and hundreds of people.

Sure. But I think that's ore out of frustration then strategy. P2P (among other things) is killing copyright. Well, at least in the way that guns kill people.

Are you running it yourself? :)

You seem to be implying that my argument is invalid unless I am running OpenTape. I disagree. I am presenting an argument, not professing my belief system.

That's what they said about P2P and RIAA is still suing hundreds and hundreds of people.

RIAA is suing hundreds of people. Considering the hundreds of millions of people sharing mp3s, that's down in the noise floor. It's more likely that you'll slip and kill yourself in the bathtub than get sued by RIAA (National Safety Council says the odds of a fatal fall in the bathtub are one in 11,469).

No, my argument is perfectly valid. You're implying that running OpenTape is easy. So I asked you where is yours.... to see if you practice what you preach. Running OpenTape is not easy at all. You need an ISP account, some knowledge of how to upload stuff, knowledge of how to set up a web app, some knowledge of PHP also might be necessary. So the number of OpenTape users is very small indeed.

And not to mention the EASE with which you'll get your ISP account shut down. An ISP will shut you down faster than your cable company would over using Bittorrent. So that's why I don't buy your argument about RIAA having 'hard time' shutting down OpenTape users.

The whole point of my post is that OpenTape is solving the wrong problem. It's a typical techie trap: trying to solve a social/legal problem with a technical solution... it almost never works.

Good point about the difficulty of setting up OpenTape for an average music lover.

Your argument led me to thinking about the difference between Muxtape/OpenTape and the mixtapes that DJs have been posting online for years.

One major difference is that most mixtapes I see have no track listings, and therefore record companies are not able to pinpoint copyright violations efficiently. I suppose then the questions is: How important is the track listing to the success of Muxtape?

Another reason is obscurity of the site/DJ. But if the Muxtape community fragments into a gaggle of OpenTape sites, perhaps it will have the same effect.

Great points! Mixtapes also had the quality of a physical good which meant that you couldn't mass produce them easily so RIAA etc couldn't do much. Muxtape makes distribution easy.

Exactly. The elephant in the room with the RIAA is the ubiquity of piracy. That's what makes DRM for the ipod so insane: only a small sliver of music is from a store.

Yeah, but add in the personal liability part. The RIAA has demonstrated before that they have no problems suing individuals for exorbitant sums of money. At least Oullette had a corporation to protect him.

Yes, that's what I was thinking. I see this as a distributed-computing solution to RIAA legal threats, "The Pirate Bay gambit", if you will.

This is how I interpreted it as well

So first the RIAA hits muxtape with a copyright blow, then the open source community gives them a body slam by making their code available to competitors. I betcha muxtape clones from china and russia will popup and take away all their momentum.

Life must suck for those guys right now. Does someone know their addresses, I'd like to send them a gift. I'm serious.

Mixtapes: the blogs of music

eg: http://8tracks.com/

http://soundcloud.com is very cool too.

the code posts data to three URLs:

define("VERSION_CHECK_URL", "http://opentape.fm/public/latest_version.php"); define("ANNOUNCE_SONGS_URL", "http://opentape.fm/public/announce_songs.php");

it sends the songs, and the hosting's site URL to opentape.fm

looks like a honeypot...?

On the Requirements section it says: "PHP 5 curl extension is required for update notification and publishing to the Opentape Discovery Network." Would be nice to have that more prominent or available as an option to enable (instead of hardcoded and kinda obscure).

I am not sure about hurting the RIAA but Muxtape is dead.

Awesome. The internet is an unstoppable force.

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