What is Aurous? The service is an internal database of links to content, collected via 120 public APIs that Sampson has integrated into the app, and the search results are then delivered to end users via the BitTorrent protocol. While Aurous claims the service is legal, it’s already facing a lawsuit from the recording industry association RIAA for violating copyright. The suit also alleges that Aurous allows users to stream music directly from BitTorrent – similar to the controversial movie service Popcorn Time – but Sampson has previously denied this, saying that his app piggybacks off of publicly available music services instead of using peer-to-peer sharing.
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Of course, there are a few downsides to the Aurous service, starting with the extremely limited selection. “Defendants have designed their service specifically to search for and retrieve these copies from a carefully chosen set of online sources notorious for offering pirated music”.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Warner Bros, UMG and Sony. Records, Atlantic and Capitol Records, said that in building a user base, Aurous was benefitting by default regardless of whether that user base was monetised.
Aurous is essentially a Popcorn Time for music, and Popcorn Time has proved to be rather resilient to litigation since it doesn’t actually host any infringing content. The RIAA’s lawsuit zeroes in on a key difference between the two players however. “Like Grokster, Limewire or Grooveshark, it is neither licensed nor legal.””This service is a flagrant example of a business model powered by copyright theft on a massive scale”, said an RIAA spokesperson in a statement given to The Guardian”.
According to Andrew Sampson, one of the app’s founders, RIAA is asking for $3 million damages, for trampling the rights of music artists.
It remains unclear is how Aurous plans to fund the legal fight.
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Aurous is a brand new service which is getting a lot of attention these days.
