legality question with multiple users

[hatmandude]

I am currently running the program with about 10 users who have each contributed portions of the total music available and before I go extending the circle of friends I would like to know if anybody has a handle on if I am potentially getting myself into legal issues regarding file sharing (a la Napster) or if it's considered a "private" sharing network and that makes it not a legal problem.

I know that if I disable downloading then it's legit since there are many sites offering streaming from multiple users.

any help appreciated

Thanks!

[M0NG0]

I'm not a lawyer, and I hate to be a party pooper, but I would assume you and your circle of friends have already technically broken copyright law. Even if you disable downloading you still don't have broadcast rights - unless you've paid for a broadcast license from ASCAP and/or BMI and/or SESAC (as I understand it, most music is licensed by one of these companies). It doesn't matter if the music you're sharing is on a private or public network - you do not have rights to share copyrighted content with anybody, even if the content was purchased legally.

My advice to you is to NOT expand your userbase, unless all of the music on your site is there with the permission of each copyright holder (as is the case of the Subsonic Demo).

Personally, I've only created accounts for just a few other people that I trust. After they told me they shared their logins/passwords with their friends that I don't know, I changed the dyndns address my subsonic was using and told my friends that my server broke and it wouldn't come back. Sucks being the bad guy, but I can't trust somebody I don't know.

This, along with my advice to you, might sound extreme; but with 700GB+ of mp3s it's better to be safe than sorry. Odds are you won't get in trouble, and even if you do get "caught" you'll likely only get a cease-and-desist letter and have to sign a "I promise never to do this again" agreement.

[buellie]

OUCH