Library Access to Music Project

Last updated
Library Access to Music Project
OwnerMIT's Student Information Processing Board and Cable Television groups
Created by Keith Winstein, Joshua Mandel, and others
URL lamp.mit.edu
Commercialno
LaunchedOctober 27, 2003;19 years ago (2003-10-27)
Content license
Server software GPLv2 (or, at your option, any later version); music is not generally licensed for redistribution
Written in Perl, PHP, C++

The Library Access to Music Project (LAMP) was a free music library for MIT students started by Keith Winstein and Joshua Mandel, and funded by the MIT/Microsoft iCampus alliance. Originally launched on October 27, 2003, [1] it has been in continuous operation since October 25, 2004.

Contents

Using LAMP

A student wishing to use LAMP goes to the LAMP website, and selects several songs. LAMP assigns to the student a channel on MIT Cable (e.g. Channel 63), then begins playing the selected music on that channel for anyone to listen to. [2]

One key advantage of LAMP, in addition to its being free for its users, is the fact that any piece of music is in theory available on it because copyright law is more lax about broadcasting over analog transmissions, such as MIT Cable, than it is about digital transmissions such as those made over computer networks. [1] For example, a person wanting to transmit a copy of "... Baby One More Time", written by Max Martin and performed by Britney Spears, could do it either with an analog transmission or a digital transmission. Using an analog transmission would only require permission from BMG, the publisher, whereas use of a digital transmission would require Spears's permission as well. [3]

This aspect of copyright law is problematic for those wishing to transmit songs by artists such as The Beatles. Their label, Apple Corps, as well as others, typically do not allow digital transmissions of their music, which is why their songs were not available on online music stores such as iTunes until late 2010. However, songs by The Beatles are available on LAMP, since LAMP doesn't require Apple Corps's permission.

Initially, MIT purchased audio from LoudEye, Inc., in MP3 form. [4] However, on the day of LAMP's initial launch, Universal Music Group approached Loudeye with concerns that it lacked the necessary licenses to make the MP3s that were sold to MIT. [5] Without music, LAMP was forced to go on a hiatus of about one year, until a different method of obtaining music was devised. [6]

LAMP in its current incarnation requires someone to purchase a physical CD and place it in a CD jukebox, where it is then turned into an MP3. However, ripping MP3s of individual songs at will is still legally questionable, so LAMP takes advantage of the "ephemeral recording" provision of copyright law. Under this provision, consumers can create a "transmission program" so long as it is designed to be played back as a whole, in sequence. LAMP currently uses "transmission programs" that are approximately 30 minutes in length. [6]

Technical information

LAMP is appropriately built with LAMP technologies. That is to say, it runs on Linux machines, uses an Apache webserver, a MySQL database, and Perl and PHP. Portions of the software are also written in C++. [7]

Related Research Articles

A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself. A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cable television</span> Television content transmitted via signals on coaxial cable

Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadcast television, in which the television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves and received by a television antenna attached to the television; or satellite television, in which the television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth, and received by a satellite dish antenna on the roof. FM radio programming, high-speed Internet, telephone services, and similar non-television services may also be provided through these cables. Analog television was standard in the 20th century, but since the 2000s, cable systems have been upgraded to digital cable operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital television</span> Television transmission using digital encoding

Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advancement and represented the first significant evolution in television technology since color television in the 1950s. Modern digital television is transmitted in high-definition television (HDTV) with greater resolution than analog TV. It typically uses a widescreen aspect ratio in contrast to the narrower format of analog TV. It makes more economical use of scarce radio spectrum space; it can transmit up to seven channels in the same bandwidth as a single analog channel, and provides many new features that analog television cannot. A transition from analog to digital broadcasting began around 2000. Different digital television broadcasting standards have been adopted in different parts of the world; below are the more widely used standards:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital media</span> Any media that are encoded in machine-readable formats

In mass communication, digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device, including digital data storage media and digital broadcasting. Digital defines as any data represented by a series of digits, and media refers to methods of broadcasting or communicating this information. Together, digital media refers to mediums of digitized information broadcast through a screen and/or a speaker. This also includes text, audio, video, and graphics that are transmitted over the internet for viewing or listening to on the internet.

Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable (DVB-C) is the DVB European consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital television over cable. This system transmits an MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 family digital audio/digital video stream, using a QAM modulation with channel coding. The standard was first published by the ETSI in 1994, and subsequently became the most widely used transmission system for digital cable television in Europe, Asia and South America. It is deployed worldwide in systems ranging from the larger cable television networks (CATV) down to smaller satellite master antenna TV (SMATV) systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ATSC standards</span> Standards for digital television in the US

Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards are an American set of standards for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable and satellite networks. It is largely a replacement for the analog NTSC standard and, like that standard, is used mostly in the United States, Mexico, Canada, and South Korea. Several former NTSC users, such as Japan, have not used ATSC during their digital television transition, because they adopted other systems such as ISDB developed by Japan, and DVB developed in Europe, for example.

Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previous analog-based cable by the mid 2010s. During the late 2000s, broadcast television converted to the digital HDTV standard, which was incompatible with existing analog cable systems.

In cable television, governments apply a must-carry regulation stating that locally licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system.

<i>A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.</i> US legal case

A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc., 239 F.3d 1004 was a landmark intellectual property case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the a district court ruling that the defendant, peer-to-peer file sharing service Napster, could be held liable for contributory infringement and vicarious infringement of copyright. This was the first major case to address the application of copyright laws to peer-to-peer file sharing.

Music on hold (MOH) is the business practice of playing recorded music to fill the silence that would be heard by telephone callers who have been placed on hold. It is especially common in situations involving customer service.

Music licensing is the licensed use of copyrighted music. Music licensing is intended to ensure that the owners of copyrights on musical works are compensated for certain uses of their work. A purchaser has limited rights to use the work without a separate agreement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Television and mass media in Vietnam</span>

Television in Vietnam began to appear in the mid-1960s in Saigon, with the appearance of Saigon Television Station. In 1970, in the North, Voice of Vietnam broadcast the first test television program. In the late 1970s, color television was introduced and broadcast experimentally. Today, television in Vietnam is available in many modes of broadcasting, with many national and local channels, broadcast or pay with more than 200 channels available to viewers. Vietnam completed the digital television transitions on December 28, 2020.

CobraNet is a combination of software, hardware, and network protocols designed to deliver uncompressed, multi-channel, low-latency digital audio over a standard Ethernet network. Developed in the 1990s, CobraNet is widely regarded as the first commercially successful audio-over-Ethernet implementation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coupon-eligible converter box</span> US DTV conversion program

A coupon-eligible converter box (CECB) was a digital television adapter that met eligibility specifications for subsidy "coupons" from the United States government. The subsidy program was enacted to provide terrestrial television viewers with an affordable way to continue receiving free digital terrestrial television services after the nation's television service transitioned to digital transmission and analog transmissions ceased. The specification was developed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), with input from the broadcast and consumer electronics industries as well as public interest groups.

Digital television in the United States is available via digital terrestrial television (DTT), digital cable, satellite television, and IPTV providers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital television transition</span> Global switchover to digital television

The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is converted to and replaced by digital television. Conducted by individual nations on different schedules, this primarily involves the conversion of analogue terrestrial television broadcasting infrastructure to digital terrestrial (DTT), a major benefit being extra frequencies on the radio spectrum and lower broadcasting costs, as well as improved viewing qualities for consumers.

Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) like access control technologies, can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. DRM technologies govern the use, modification and distribution of copyrighted works and of systems that enforce these policies within devices. DRM technologies include licensing agreements and encryption.

This is a list of low-power television stations (LPTV) in the United States, transmitting on VHF channel 6, which operate as radio stations capable of being picked up by standard FM receivers. These stations are colloquially known as "Franken FMs", a reference to Frankenstein's monster, because TV stations functioning as radio stations had not been envisioned by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC commonly refers to these stations as "FM6" operations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telecommunications</span> Transmission of information electromagnetically

Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that feasible with the human voice, but with a similar scale of expediency; thus, slow systems are excluded from the field.

The digital television transition in Japan (アナログ放送終了) was the mandatory switchover from analog to digital terrestrial television broadcasting that began in 2008 and continued through early 2012. The switchover itself took place between 24 July 2011 and 31 March 2012, and involved television stations across all five major commercial networks, the entire network of NHK's broadcast transmitters, and television stations that are part of the JAITS group. Japan was the first country in eastern Asia to cease broadcasting television signals in analog.

References

  1. 1 2 Schwartz, John (27 October 2003). "With Cable TV at M.I.T., Who Needs Napster?". New York Times . Retrieved 27 July 2013.
  2. Graham, Jefferson (26 October 2003). "LAMP lights way for those seeking free, legal, Net tunes". USA Today . Retrieved 27 July 2013.
  3. Kohn, Al (2010). Kohn on music licensing. Frederick, MD: Aspen Publishers. p. 1469. ISBN   978-0735590908.
  4. Loudeye Corp. (27 October 2003). "Loudeye Supports Launch of MIT's Electronic Music Library; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Unveils On-Demand Electronic Music Library Leveraging Loudeye's Digital Media Services". PR Newswire. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
  5. Peterson, Kim (5 November 2003). "Loudeye's hard music lesson plants it in center of controversy". The Seattle Times . Retrieved 27 July 2013.
  6. 1 2 Chang, Jeffrey (26 October 2004). "After Legal Issues, LAMP Returns to MIT" (PDF). The Tech . pp. 1, 14. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
  7. "Frequently Asked Questions". LAMP project. 20 October 2004. Retrieved 28 July 2013.