Muso and VK.com strike anti-piracy deal
Online anti-piracy company Muso has a struck a deal with Russian social network VK.com to scan the site for illegal downloads.
Muso, based in London and Los Angeles, will notify owners of illegally-uploaded files that their work has been copied. The rights owners can then ask VK.com to remove the files.
VK is Europe’s second biggest social network after Facebook, allowing millions of users to message friends, share images and update their statuses.
But it also lets people upload, search and stream media content, including from external file-sharing sites that connect to VK’s network. Muso claims that about 77 percent of music and video shared on the VK site is unlicensed.
Under the agreement, Muso, which represents more than 1,000 media companies, will constantly monitor VK for illegal files and automatically notify a client if its track is uploaded twice.
“This agreement, which affects European and other global rights owners, will see commencement into the removal of hundreds of mp3 sites that are freely making available their entire audio library to 32 million people via VK.com’s interface,” said Muso co-founder Andy Chatterley.
“The rise of illegal mp3 one-click download and streaming sites is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry.”
IgorMotsnyi, partner at Motsnyi Legal Services/Standmark in Moscow, said that for about five years VK has been notorious in Russia for providing access to illegal content.
Speaking about the Muso agreement, he said: “It seems to me that VK and rights owners need to cooperate. VK wants to get rid of its bad image; it wants to become a reputable social network. For rights owners, they also understand they need to work with Russian Internet businesses.
“It remains to be seen how effective it will be, but I can only welcome this agreement.”
Muso typically scans cyber lockers and torrent sites, Chatterley said, but VK “stands alone” because it allows other sites to plug in and share entire libraries on the network.
“That’s where the danger is for VK, as the mp3 sites don’t require a login.”
The new agreement, he said, will have a positive effect on reducing piracy.
“The best thing you can do is remove visibility as much as possible, as you will never eradicate piracy under the current legislation. VK’s mp3 sites are so visible, so by removing the songs from their database, we instantaneously remove their visibility.”
Chatterley said there are no financial terms of the deal, which has taken about two years to conclude, mainly because of a lot of “technical requirements” involved.
