Ah, the memories

Former High Geek of MP3, Sander van Zoest, just posted a video from the night we unleashed the bomb. Who would have thought that we'd get sued for 80 billion dollars. No seriously, those were damages sought based on $100,000 per song ripped by the bomb.

Hey, it was a worthwhile attempt to try to force record companies into licensing content in a consumer friendly manner. The most intersting lesson learned from the legal aftermath was that a) the record companies couldn't actually license us the CDs if they wanted to, so convoluted was the right holder business and the issues on whether this was mechanical or performance, and b) that the record companies don't actually know what they hold copyrights for, in detail. What a record keeping nightmare.

Sure our ploy didn't make it, but it did pave the road for licensing and pushed Sony/UMG to create a venture for legal music called Duet ne Pressplay, or as it is now called, Napster.