In Defense of Multiply

There have been petitions going around, calling for a Multiply boycott on the 18th of January, Friday. This is in light of Multiply's recent move to limit music-sharing among its users. One of those rants can be read here.

This blog is being written in response to Budi's message asking me what my stand is on the issue. I could not have been bothered at all simply because I did not feel the seemingly collective outrage that this move has elicited. But alas, my opinion was requested. So now let me tell you why I am not joining the boycott.

Eversince I can remember, Multiply has always had a note on its "upload music" page that goes like this, "By clicking upload, you certify that these files do not violate Multiply's Terms of Service and that you own all copyrights or have express permission from all copyright owners to upload them." Or something like that. In fact I can vaguely remember that at some point, Multiply stated a warning saying that Multiply has the right to take down music that did not pass rules on the copyright law. Or something like that. It might have been tweaked a bit over the years but we are all aware that Multiply was never lacking in informing its users that sharing copyrighted materials is bad. Therefore we are not to do it. That we have been naughty and did it anyway is not Multiply's fault. That Multiply was lax in implementing the rules had always been something we enjoyed and cheered for, and hoped would last forever.

And then Multiply is sued.

Is it now Multiply's fault that it has decided to be stricter?

"Oh, but Multiply lured us with its promise of free music! And now that they have the numbers to attract advertisers, they'll go back on their promise. We mean nothing to them!"

I'm only grateful that there was a time when we were able to access free copyrighted music when we really shouldn't. That's better than nothing, right? Besides, again, its promise of free music has always had a note attached to it that goes something like, "as long as its yours," and "as long as you have permission from the owner."

So there.

Stop whining.