So a group claiming to be part of infamous hacktivist group Anonymous has announced a music social network called Anontune, reports Wired.
According to a short video by the group, the network will focus on the music itself not information about music.
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The project is still very much in its fledgling stage and it is designed to curate songs from third-party sources such as YouTube, which then allows anonymous to add them to playlists and share them. All this while making sure the service doesn’t get shut down by music industry lawsuits.
According to an email sent to Wired, the idea for Anontune was born from discussions by a group of Anonymous hackers, who apparently met online six years ago, on what was then an underground hacking site.
“We would say stuff like, ‘People really use YouTube as a music player yet it really sucks for that purpose … it’s too unorganized,'” the Wired email said. “And then, ‘YouTube does make a good music player but you can’t play all your songs on it since the obscure ones aren’t uploaded,’ then eventually, ‘Hmmm, what if you were to combine music websites like Myspace, Yahoo, YouTube and others?'”
There could be some serious legal ramifications for Anontune even if it operates using completely legitimate methods, according to Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Corynne McSherry in a Wired interview.
“What we’re seeing here is a situation where the government is getting much more involved in enforcement, and we know that the U.S. 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 is no one to make a deal with in this situation.”
When users set up an Anontune account, they are able to build playlists by simply typing in the names of songs they want to hear, or by choosing from the songs imported from their iPods.
You can read Anontune’s white paper for me information.
