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Seeqpod applies for bankruptcy protection
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 1 April 2009
Seeqpod, it seems, is on the verge of collapse, which possibly explains why it began selling off its source code last month, [a] to raise quick funds and [b] to ensure that, should the Seeqpod company disappear, its music search system is still out there on t’internet.
As previously reported, Seeqpod is a special search engine which specifically searches and links to audio files on the internet, meaning a search for any given artist will provide links to their music as stored on servers and websites all over the world. The music is ready to play for free, and can even be played through a little player widget on the Seeqpod website. Much of the music linked to, of course, is unlicensed, which is why Warner started legal proceedings against the people behind the service early last year, and why EMI following suit with their own, erm, suit, earlier this year.
Seeqpod, of course, don’t host any of the music files themselves, which means that if anything they are guilty of the slightly more abstract charges of vicarious or contributory infringement – ie they enable others to infringe. The search company argues that their service does not amount to infringement under the US’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act, because provisions to protect more mainstream search engines from infringement charges apply to them too.
It’s sort of uncharted territory, because the infringement liability of a music-specific search service that links to unlicensed content hasn’t been tested in the US courts. There are parallels between the accusations made against Seeqpod in America and those made against search engine Baidu in China and, to a certain extent, against BitTorrent trackers like The Pirate Bay.
It’s TechCrunch who have reported that the company behind Seeqpod have applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, despite having raised a reported $7 million in venture capital. It’s thought the move may be a sign that the company’s legal advisors are increasingly pessimistic about the firm’s chances of defending itself against Warner and EMI’s litigation, and that the request for Chapter 11 protection is to stop the record companies putting the firm into liquidation by chasing what could be multi-million dollar damages settlements.
Whatever the reasons, as the reports of Chapter 11 protection began to circulate yesterday speculation that Seeqpod will close down sooner rather than later began to spread on the net. What impact that would have on other legally-questionable music services that piggy-back on Seeqpod’s search technology – such as the recently reported mixtape.me – I’m not sure, though if Seeqpod successfully persuade others to buy their search system and then host it on other servers, presumably mixtape.me et al could quickly switch to those other providers of the system, at least until they get sued out of business (and if enough people do decide to host Seeqpod spin offs, such litigation could take a very long time).
