The Art Of A Legal Muxtape

Recently, The 463: Inside Tech Policy blog did a post on a new music service called Muxtape. Muxtape is undeniably cool.  It brings us back to a time when creating
a mix tape was a work of art we all practiced.  As John Cusack
proclaimed in High Fidelity:

    "The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard
to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with
a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but
you don’t wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch.
There are a lot of rules."

In the end, Muxtape is a cool "legal time bomb." But, the most
important lesson here is that it DOESN‚T HAVE TO BE.  There are a
million and one ways to do something similar without breaking, bending,
or even rubbing up against any laws.  You can already share your
playlists through iTunes or many other music services.

Much like putting together a great mix tape, there are a lot of rules
to creating a great online music service.  That doesn’t mean that it’s
illegal, it just means you need to know what you‚re doing.  But, we in
the tech industry need to be focused on helping entrepreneurs navigate
these rules effectively, not scaring them off from even trying. ACT
will be publishing a paper soon which will assist innovators in better
understanding the vast opportunities they have to create new services
and products without running afoul of the law.