Sometimes the PR materials are so full of noise that they become more interesting than the actual product they’re supposed to advertise. Such is the case with Clickster, a desktop software application which searches MP3s on web sites and lets you rip them from MySpace profiles and Shoutcast’s radio stream.
We’ve seen a fair share of MP3 search engines, but what makes Clickster interesting is their claim that their way of downloading MP3s is perfectly legal and free. I’m definitely not the one to advocate the fight against music sharing, but I honestly don’t see what separates Clickster from any other search engine that grabs MP3s from a zillion blogs and other sites that post songs with dubious legal origin.
Even the screenshot of the free version of Clickster from Remlap site displays songs from a Libertines album. Now, Libertines were a British Band signed with the label Rough Trade Records. If you download those songs for free from the internet, wouldn’t you think that Rough Trade will probably consider this to be piracy?
Consider this excerpt from Clickster’s PR pamphlet:
“Unlike peer to peer networks that are increasingly coming under pressure from western governments and the recording industry to crack down on illegal file sharers Clickster provides a safe, fast and comprehensive alternative, directly sourcing over 30 million mp3’s hosted on web servers.”
Yeah, right. Downloading copyrighted music without paying for it will be frowned upon by the music industry, regardless of whether you’re using http or some p2p protocol to download.
The fact that Clickster can rip music off MySpace profiles or Shoutcast streams sounds nice enough from the user’s standpoint, but since the recording industry has been trying to prevent such actions for years, once again I doubt one can consider this to be a legal way to freely download music.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that the recording industry is right at everything they do to prevent music sharing. But on the other hand, simply saying that something is “legal” and “free” won’t make it so.
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