music industry's red scare

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Music Industry's Red Scare By Paulo Rebêlo

2:00 a.m. May 29, 2001 PDT RECIFE, Brazil –- Despite the recording industry's well -publicized efforts to stop online music trading, it doesn'tappear the practice will end anytime soon.

Now, with the appearance of a software program known asComuna, Brazilians have a leg up on their foreign music -trading counterparts. Comuna, taken from "communism," isupported by Central MP3 , one of the most popular musicand MP3 related sites in Brazil.

Although Marxist ideology hasn't enjoyed much of a voguein Brazil since the '70s, Comuna's author said it was anappropriate name. "For a program which intends to sharefiles in such a communist environment as the Internet, thename's fine," said Mikhail Miguel (not his real name), awebmaster/programmer from Rio.

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Comuna, which comes packaged with alikeness of Lenin on it, is a Gnutella-basedapplication that is accessible only toBrazilian users.

Known to only a select few until recently,

Comuna has been creating a buzz afterreports about it surfaced in mainstreammagazines.

"We're the Comuna's introducers," saidFábio Bruzamolin, one of Central MP3'screators and webmasters. "We showed it tthe people."

According to Bruzamolin, Comuna has bee

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Music Industry's RedScare

advertised at Central MP3 for a long time,although he conceded that things didn'ttake off until the magazines began writingabout it. But whoever gets the credit, theimportant thing is that Brazilians knowabout it.

"It's hard to find Brazilian music throughNapster or Gnutella," Bruzamolin said. "Wewant to create an MP3-sharing communityin Brazil, and I think Comuna will do thework."

Since Comuna was developed usingGnutella, it doesn't have a central server,making it almost impossible to track orclose down.

Speed is a drawback, however. Since it's aunique network that has to host everyone,things run slower than modern onlinesensibilities are used to.

Both Bruzamolin and Mikhail take the highroad when it comes to the subject of copyright infringement. "We're not doinganything wrong or illegal," Bruzamolin said"Comuna is free and it's not hostedanywhere.

"If they intend to come after us, I guessthey’d have to stop portals such as Yahoofrom linking to MP3 files, stop ICQ fromletting people trade MP3 files, and stopInternet Explorer from downloading files.

"If we start to think that Comuna is piracy,then any software allowed to download orupload can be considered as piracy, too."

As for politics, Mikhail believes that afterwinning the Cold War, Americans arepromoting communism across the Internetwithout even knowing it.

"Technology is taking us to a scenariowhere the (capitalist) way of producing willbe defeated and eventually replaced. Wehave the seed of a new role where therewill be no market rules," Mikhail said.

That fits Brazil's recent embrace of neoliberalism, Mikhail declared. He arguesthat Comuna is symptomatic of a culture

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that values societal equality over theaccumulation of personal wealth.

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Re l a t e d W i r e d L i n k s :

Peer to Peer to Getting Paid May 18, 2001

Worldwide Copyrights a Quagmire? May 16, 2001

Brazil Declares War on Pirates May 11, 2001

File Traders Take Aim at RIAA May 2, 2001

Brazil Counting on a Net Gain Feb. 23, 2001

Napster's New (Secure) Groove Feb. 17, 2001

Brazil ISPs Drop Like Dot -Coms

Feb. 9, 2001

Brazil's Amazonian Net Reach Feb. 1, 2001

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