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Is Background music on Homepages legal?

Bruno83Bruno83
edited September 2007 in General Chat
I’ve got a little Homepage, and I want to implement background music.
You know, like they all have it on the Myspace sites.
But I don’t know if it’s allowed for me to do so.
I’m not giving any link to the mp3file, but I think if somebody is smart enough to watch my source code, it shouldn’t be too hard to find it.
And the mp3 file will be in his temporary folder anyway right?

Oh and does anybody know, where to host an mp3file for free?
I don’t have unlimited data transfer on my space. Only 1GB every month.
The webspace offerer I’ve found don’t allow Mp3 files or files that are bigger then 1MB. (For obvious reasons)

Comments

  • Bruno83Bruno83
    edited September 2007
    hmmm....
    Maybe this isn't the right place to dicuss this.
  • jmmjmm
    edited September 2007
    If you own the rights of the music its ok, otherwise you'll have to ask for permission (and probably have to pay some sort of fee).

    As for obscuring the data, streaming is the way. I have seen several flash sites to do this.
  • Bruno83Bruno83
    edited September 2007
    that's what I thought too.
    But I don't beleave all the guys at myspace have own the rights of the music...
  • MolokovMolokov
    edited September 2007
    On Myspace, generally you would go to an artist's space and add one of their songs to your profile. The artist has given permission for Myspace to use their songs as background.

    On some people's profile you may see "This song has been deleted by the artist" as many artists will put some of their songs up for a limited time only. I know a few of the artists I like and have 'friended' put up their entire new albums for about a week before release, but after the album was out, they just dropped it back to 2 or 3 singles. It's good to be able to listen to the whole thing before going out and buying the album.

    However, I won't deny that there's probably plenty of songs on Myspace that haven't been put there by the legitimate copyright holder, but that's not the problem of the user who just puts them on as a background....

    From your point of view, I would suggest ensuring you do have permission to use whatever music you have as a background, or rather - don't use any at all, because I know it's a frickin' annoying thing, especially when you open several people's profiles in many tabs... I get four or five annoying pop songs of different genres blasting out my speakers and it's a pain to go through all the tabs trying to find the 'stop' buttons....

    :p
  • HaggisHaggis
    edited September 2007
    If you put music on your site, the Internet Police will come to your house, kick down your door and confiscate your PC for crimes against humanity. Seriously, don't do it, it's just annoying and doesn't really add anything to your site.
  • Bruno83Bruno83
    edited September 2007
    thanks everybody
    I was planning to put a visible player on the site, that you could just immediatly stop, if you don't like it.
    I don't know....
    I'm not sure about this anymore.
    I've already tried some things to add a player, and it worked.
    But then I thought, this might get annoying if you regularly visit the site.
  • purple_monkfishpurple_monkfish
    edited September 2007
    is it illegal? no idea.. it should be though -_-
    Just a personal hate thing.. I LOATHE music on webpages. I wanna listen to my music damnit not some random tat someone else liked *sulk*

    just for the love of all things holy, give us a nice clear "OFF" button so those of us with Winamp forever playing don't need to have our ears assulted by two songs playing at once.
  • patterspatters
    edited September 2007
    there should be a mute button on browsers
  • doom saberdoom saber
    edited September 2007
    I think it is legal if the song is a midi file. Midi files are generally songs that fans made with their pianos or whatever. Because midi format has no vocals and is a not so accurate copy to the original, I doubt you will get arrested for using it. If I recall, midi files were popular before mp3s though there were a dozen or so different variations of the same song in midi format. However, if it is an mp3 file, then I would say no unless you are the artist or have permission from the music industry.

    You can use the mp3 file on myspace, but as Molokov have said, the artist gave permission to use it already. But, if you use one of those third party mp3 playlist on myspace, I would say it isn't. I recall that there is a third party mp3 playlist that searches mp3 files for you. You just type the name of the song and it will find a site that has it. I decided not to use it since the songs they have are copyrighted and I didn't want to get in trouble over a mp3 file
  • jmmjmm
    edited September 2007
    MIDI's are still copyrighted material, but nobody in their senses will pursuit legal action for something that is that old while there are newer technologies ripe for legal action (e.g.: mp3s, YouTube, torrents, etc)

    Its like suing a company for using a copyrighted coil for a 1923 electric toaster, while other companies are illegally using pirated microchips.

    However, oddest things happen everyday so... use it at your own risk
  • Bruno83Bruno83
    edited September 2007
    Geee...
    I didn't know so many people hate background music that much.
    I wouldn't put a midi file the site. Those are really annoying.
  • purple_monkfishpurple_monkfish
    edited September 2007
    Music on websites fills me with homocidal rage *nods*
  • xChri5xxChri5x
    edited September 2007
    If you're not selling anything it's fine.
  • MaratanosMaratanos
    edited September 2007
    Hey, I'd just like to say that not ALL music in webpages is bad.


    I think that if it's tastefully done, and it's more ambient than in-your-face, it can work.


    But I've only seen one or two sites where this is the case.
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