HypedMusic closes down, the latest victim of the RIAA
While services like Grooveshark and Torch Music manage to survive, the Recording Industry Association of America is on a more or less constant attack of similar streaming sites. Now it seems the RIAA has managed to pull off a victory, strong-arming one service out of business.
HypedMusic calls it quits as a result of the cease and desist threats it has received. "I am not in any way condemning the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for what they did or claiming that in some way they 'wronged' me; they had the right to send me a cease-and-desist and I immediately complied", the developer laments.
The site allowed users to stream (not download) music, create and share playlists and maintain apps for both iOS and Android.
The service was created in 2011 by a then 15 year old student, who claimed he expected to be protected by the DMCA's fair use policy -- which he points out is currently protecting both Google and SoundCloud. The service did not store any music, but only provided links to the location where each track resided.
"I’m 18 years old, and I definitely do not want to get sued… Again, just to reiterate: I did not make HypedMusic with the intention of infringing copyright, I thought I was operating in a legal area after seeing different, large companies do similar things", the developer writes on his blog. Congratulations to the RIAA for successfully intimidating a kid.
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