Cyber activists linked to the Anonymous collective have rolled out a new social music platform aptly dubbed “AnonTunes.”
Instead of hosting music files that users stream or download, the platform serves scraped content from websites such as YouTube, SoundCloud and BandCamp.
“Anontune will be very similar to radio in that it won’t provide the means to download the music. It will be closed to streaming only, and this offers some protection against piracy. In a sense, it’s really not so different to existing streaming services because our restrictions and revenue model are similar,” a group rep explained in a PasteBin post.
“It’s not as if we have no intention of cooperating with the RIAA, either. I think that would be a great choice. It’s also interesting to note that our involvement places us in cooperation with existing streaming services (because we will need them.) What’s not to say that this won’t play out to HELP rather than DISRUPT the industry?”
Meanwhile, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) attorney Corynne McSherry told Wired that Anontunes will likely come into the world “with a target on its back,” even if it operates using completely legitimate methods.
“What we’re seeing here is a situation where the government is getting much more involved in enforcement, and we know that the US government doesn’t like Anonymous all that much anyway,” said McSherry.
“I think content owners, if they feel like the site is a really viable site, they’re going to be pretty nervous [about this]… Because they like to have people that they can make deals with, and there’s no one to make a deal with in this situation.”
