In what some call a break from the rest of the entertainment business but others say isn’t exactly a full embrace of a controversial technology, Sony BMG and Grokster are joining forces for a project, Mashboxx, to meld free music sampling and paid downloads.
This news comes two months after a federal appeals court panel upheld a ruling that Grokster and Morpheus could not be held directly liable for any copyright infringement engaged by users of the two popular peer-to-peer file swapping networks. The thinking behind Mashboxx is likely to be a major label meeting the peer-to-peer world half way: letting them have some free music while encouraging them to buy more.
"That's great that they're at least trying to experiment," Michael Weiss, chief of Morpheus parent Streamcast, said about the Grokster/Sony BMG partnership. "I'd like to see more experimentation and find out what really does work."
Mashboxx is said to be a project that will draw on technology that includes a kind of root in the granddaddy of peer-to-peer: Snocap, Inc., founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning, whose most famous creation has since been rescued from bankruptcy and resurrected as a thriving new pay-to-play music download service under very different management by Roxio. Mashboxx’s actual operator is believed to be Wayne Rosso, who has a reputation for flamboyant rhetoric about the evils of the entertainment industry.
Grokster representatives did not return queries for comment from AVNOnline.com before this story went to press, and published reports elsewhere indicated Sony BMG and Ross declined to comment yet on the new project.
But those reports suggested Mashboxx would involve users searching for Sony BMG-labeled tracks and the system letting them download authorized versions of the songs in question. Those, the reports said, could be free promotional cuts with offers to buy higher-quality offerings.
The Mashboxx news also arrived as the Recording Industry Association of America continued its litigation campaign against P2P downloads. The music trade group announced infringement suits October 28 against 750 more P2P network users, bringing the total of litigation targets past 6,000.
One record company executive told reporters anonymously that there is more “serious effort” on the side of the record labels to make Mashboxx-style alliances between the music business and P2P work than people would expect to see. Another said one other P2P network which he declined to name, agreed to give Mashboxx a try.
