Less than three days after launch, Aurous, dubbed the ‘Popcorn Time for Music, ‘ is now being sued by major recording labels Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment, as well as their various subsidiaries. Only these links are hosted by the service. But the “we don’t actually host the files” defence has been unsuccessfully employed by numerous file-sharing technologies over the years.
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“Safe harbours” have also been mentioned, it being something of a buzzword in music rights circles at the moment.
The service has proved mildly popular, with Sampson claiming that up to 8,000 people at any one time were downloading the app. Have you downloaded the app?
The legal implications are muddy at best – but the app’s developer Andrew Sampson claimed that Aurous was above board, at least in the U.S., because it used public APIs to find tracks on services like Soundcloud, YouTube and Spotify. What stands out is that it can take advantage of other existing platforms and piggyback off those. So you can listen from anywhere that you have a playlist. Hate how hard it is to use Apple Music?
It has a slick, customizable UI, it’ll support all the music files you already own and you’ll never have to worry about listening to ads between songs just because you aren’t paying a monthly subscription. In a series of tweets it also challenged music industry CEOs to an arm wrestling competition instead of a fight through the courts.
So even if the legalities are not as straightforward as the RIAA says, there is still enough ambiguity to make this business plan tricky.
Aurous’ search engine helps ensure that users only see music for which they have legal access; unlicensed content such as bootlegs or pre-releases are removed once identified.
A service once called the “Popcorn Time for music” by its creators has officially gone live.
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Aurous remained defiant, calling the suit “empty”.
