From Daniel P. Brochu Sent Wed, Feb 3rd 1999, 17:23
From Daniel P. Brochu Sent Wed, Feb 3rd 1999, 17:23
from the wired website: Lycos Gets Fast with MP3 by Ronald Warren Deutsch 9:00 a.m. 1.Feb.99.PST Lycos plans to enter the digital music download fray, offering what the company calls the "world's largest searchable database of MP3s." "Despite MP3's exploding popularity, music fans have been forced to rely upon a hodgepodge of Web sites to find the MP3 recordings they want to hear," said Jan Horsfall, vice president of marketing for Lycos, in a statement. The new Lycos MP3 search site, built by the Norwegian company Fast Search and Transfer ASA, will be accessible through the Lycos.com home page under "advanced search." Lycos is in the process of acquiring Wired Digital. MP3 -- short for Motion Picture Experts Group, Audio Layer 3 -- is a widely popular format for downloading and playing Internet music files. The compressed files are easily transmitted on the Net and provide near CD-quality sound. Espen Brodin, president and CEO of FAST, said the new site will push MP3 further toward the mainstream. Recording Industry of America consultant Nick DiGiacomo, who is also vice president of electronic markets for Scient, agreed. "All this investment in MP3 makes people look at it and say it's legitimate," DiGiacomo said. "The more legitimate it gets, it will make people think more about creating a business model for making money." But he added, "I would be surprised if the RIAA doesn't come down on it." Lycos makes no claims to the quality or legality of files uncovered in a search. In a news release, Lycos said FAST was only providing links, not posting, recording, or distributing music files. Using Lycos' MP3 Search to look for files of the rock group R.E.M. uncovered a wealth of song files, all of which would be considered pirated versions that violated international copyright laws. "It will be on Lycos' back to be responsible," said DiGiacomo. "If they find illegal MP3s, they will probably have to take them down." It was not clear how Lycos would meet that challenge. The RIAA was not available for comment late last week at the writing of this article. "There's no question, they're not liable," said Michael Robertson, president of MP3.com, "You'd have to close all the search engines for everything from MP3s to child pornography." While Robertson does not condone piracy, he said it's important to put the blame in the right place: on the people who are uploading the files. According to both Lycos and Searchterms.com, the term MP3 is the No. 2-ranked search word, just after "sex." Lycos maintains the new database merely facilitates searches for its search engine users. - this came out on monday. by tuesday the RIAA was already threatening lawsuits and is forcing Lycos to police the sites on the search engine to insure that no copyrighted material is illegally available.