Web service ToS follow-up

[ Rather than respond to comments to the previous post, I will create a new post — I think this is important enough to clarify ] Declin said: > I don’t see how putting a particular license on the *data* solves the problem. Terms of *service* are something entirely different. We’re not putting a new … Continue reading “Web service ToS follow-up”

[ Rather than respond to comments to the previous post, I will create a new post — I think this is important enough to clarify ]

Declin said:

> I don’t see how putting a particular license on the *data* solves the problem. Terms of *service* are something entirely different.

We’re not putting a new license on our data — the data remains under the existing licenses.

I am suggesting that the ToS for our web service state that:

  1. Anyone can access the web service.
  2. Data returned by the web service is covered under the CC license, since we may return data where portions are PD and portions are CC. We must use the greater common denominator license if we want to be consistent with our data licenses.

This has the effect that anyone can connect to our web service, but using the data returned from the service has to be use in accordance with the CC license. In order to not be in copyright violation, the user needs to qualify as non-commercial set out by the CC license. The two clarifications on non-profit I give serve to make it clear that these uses fall into the non-commercial realm, since the CC license errs on the side of commercial use if a use falls into a grey zone.

Technorati Tags: ,

Continue reading “Web service ToS follow-up”

MusicBrainz web service: Time to adopt a Tos?

I recently got word that at least one for-profit company (who shall remain nameless right now) is/was using the MusicBrainz web service in their paid commercial offering. Personally, I don’t think its OK for a for-profit company to be consuming the resources of a non-profit — we make all of our data and software available … Continue reading “MusicBrainz web service: Time to adopt a Tos?”

I recently got word that at least one for-profit company (who shall remain nameless right now) is/was using the MusicBrainz web service in their paid commercial offering. Personally, I don’t think its OK for a for-profit company to be consuming the resources of a non-profit — we make all of our data and software available for companies to download and use for free (as in speech and beer). If someone wants to use our data for their product, they should do it with their own resources.

For the first set version of the Terms of Service, I would like to keep things simple and not add too many rules. Given that I would like to solicit feedback about adopting the following Terms of Service for the web service:

I’d like to get some feedback on this, so please leave a comment:

  • Does this make sense philosophically?
  • Do you spot any problems with this setup?
  • What else should we consider?

Technorati Tags: ,

Profit and Loss of the MetaBrainz Foundation for 2005

I just posted the Profit and Loss statement (PDF) for the MetaBrainz Foundation’s fiscal year 2005: Income 4010 Income – Donations – PayPal $ 13,768.31 4020 Income – Donations – General $ 3,980.10 4040 Income – Licenses – Live Data Feed $ 2,465.74 4070 Income – Bank – Interest $ 13.02 4080 Income – Affiliate … Continue reading “Profit and Loss of the MetaBrainz Foundation for 2005”

I just posted the Profit and Loss statement (PDF) for the MetaBrainz Foundation’s fiscal year 2005:

Income
4010 Income – Donations – PayPal $ 13,768.31
4020 Income – Donations – General $ 3,980.10
4040 Income – Licenses – Live Data Feed $ 2,465.74
4070 Income – Bank – Interest $ 13.02
4080 Income – Affiliate – Amazon $ 122.66
   Total Income $ 20,349.83
 
Expense
5020 Expense – Bank – PayPal $ 818.60
5040 Expense – Hosting – CCCP $ 1,174.00
5050 Expense – Rent – Higuera Office $ 2,000.00
5070 Expense – Hardware $ 4,661.47
5080 Expense – Travel $ 802.41
5090 Expense – Internet $ 264.31
5100 Expense – Marketing $ 155.00
5110 Expense – Development $ 2,486.15
5120 Expense – Supplies $ 51.52
5130 Expense – Gifts $ 186.90
5140 Expense – Events $ 355.02
   Total Expense $ 12,955.38
 
   Net Income $ 7,394.45

I’ve also posted the Balance Sheet for 2005 (PDF) and the Balance Sheet for December 2005 (PDF). While we weren’t wildly successful for our first full year in operation, we stayed in the black the entire time and certainly showed that we have a lot of public support. And the IRS cares much about public support for tax exempt non-profits.

Technorati Tags: ,

Fundraiser complete: $1,318.86 raised!

The year end fundraiser totalled $1,318.86 (+$100) dollars and thus exceeded our goal for purchasing new hardware! Thanks to everyone who donated in the last days of 2005! The top donors were: AgentArts – $500 Alexander Dupuy – $100 Christopher Wilson – $100 (pledged, but not received yet) Drew Hess – $50 Mathew Philip – … Continue reading “Fundraiser complete: $1,318.86 raised!”

The year end fundraiser totalled $1,318.86 (+$100) dollars and thus exceeded our goal for purchasing new hardware!

Thanks to everyone who donated in the last days of 2005! The top donors were:

  • AgentArts – $500
  • Alexander Dupuy – $100
  • Christopher Wilson – $100 (pledged, but not received yet)
  • Drew Hess – $50
  • Mathew Philip – $25
  • Mark Nicholson – $25
  • Mario Lia – $25
  • Alexander Van Vucht – $25
  • Eric Duerr – $25
  • Geof Morris – $25

Thank you everyone!!

Technorati Tags: ,

End of year fundraiser

MusicBrainz’ servers are smoking and generally overloaded these days. Fortunately, we have one more unused server that needs drives and a RAID controller before we can use it. Rich Gibson, a friend of MusicBrainz has even pledged a place for us to stash the server for free! So, to make that happen I would like … Continue reading “End of year fundraiser”

MusicBrainz’ servers are smoking and generally overloaded these days. Fortunately, we have one more unused server that needs drives and a RAID controller before we can use it. Rich Gibson, a friend of MusicBrainz has even pledged a place for us to stash the server for free!

So, to make that happen I would like to kill two birds with one stone:

  1. Get you a tax deduction before tax year 2005 comes to a close
  2. Get more hardware to bring another server online.

This will allow us to bring one new server online. This new server would be used for Picard tagging, calculating indexes for Picard and the upcoming PimpMyTunes command line tagger. Before too long we would also perform all MusicBrainz searches with this machine. This would give much better search results and lighten the load on the main database server.

From now until the end of the year, if we collect $500, I will purchase:

  • Two Ultra 320 SCSI 36Gb drives for about $150 each
  • One Adaptec Zero Channel RAID controller for about $200

and then boot the server and put it to use as outlined above. If we collect $1000, I will also purchase the following to upgrade zim (the all purpose server) from the current single drive configuration that is too small for our current needs:

  • One SATA RAID Controller for about $250
  • Two SATA150 200Gb Seagate drives for $150 each

If you feel like MusicBrainz needs more capacity and/or you could use a tax break on this year’s taxes, please make a donation today! If you prefer to send us a check, click the donate link for our address — just make sure that you drop the check in the mail before the year is over!

Technorati Tags: ,

The impending quasi-death of Style Guideline #5

On January 8th, 2006 we will update the server with the Style Guideline 5 Disaster Relief fix that was discussed at the MusicBrainz Summit 7. From the wiki page: The plans are as follows: Allow albums with various artists on the tracks but which are attributed to one artist to be moved to this artist. … Continue reading “The impending quasi-death of Style Guideline #5”

On January 8th, 2006 we will update the server with the Style Guideline 5 Disaster Relief fix that was discussed at the MusicBrainz Summit 7.

From the wiki page:

The plans are as follows:

Allow albums with various artists on the tracks but which are attributed to one artist to be moved to this artist.

Change the StyleGuideline like this: “If two or more primary artists perform on a track, create a collaboration artist for them and attach the track to it.”

Note, that the use of “feat.” will still be valid for guest performing artists.

For more information on this change, please read the wiki page. These changes are now live on the staging server if you want to give them a try.

Technorati Tags: , ,

Board of directors change

Due to Larry Lessig’s overwhelming schedule, Larry has moved into the Director Emeritus position on our board of directors. This means that Larry is less involved with day-to-day activities of the foundation, but still remains available to us for consulting on larger issues where we can use his expertise. Taking his place is Brian Zisk … Continue reading “Board of directors change”

Due to Larry Lessig’s overwhelming schedule, Larry has moved into the Director Emeritus position on our board of directors. This means that Larry is less involved with day-to-day activities of the foundation, but still remains available to us for consulting on larger issues where we can use his expertise.

Taking his place is Brian Zisk from the Future of Music Coalition. Brian has an extensive tech background in the Silicon Valley, (Green Witch Radio, iCast, Xiph to name a few) as well as extensive contacts in the music industry through his co-founding of the Future of Music Coalition. Brian will be a perfect addition to our board and his presence will open a number of doors in the music industry for the MetaBrainz Foundation.

Welcome to the MetaBrainz Foundation, Brian!

Technorati Tags: ,

Record of the 7th MusicBrainz Summit

MusicBrainzSummit7 is over. It was fun, and it was a lot of work. Here is what we’ve worked out: From the whole range of patchy fix to complete rewrite, we have chosen both extremes: FeaturingArtistStyle will be patched very soon. Then work will start on MusicBrainz 2.0: a complete rewrite of the database schema, the … Continue reading “Record of the 7th MusicBrainz Summit”

MusicBrainzSummit7
is over. It was fun, and it was a lot of work. Here is what we’ve worked out:
From the whole range of patchy fix to complete rewrite, we have chosen both
extremes:

  1. FeaturingArtistStyle will be patched very soon.
  2. Then work will start on MusicBrainz 2.0: a complete rewrite of the
    database schema, the moderation system and the user interfaces. This will
    take a long time.
  3. In the meantime small improvements and fixes to old nuisances will be
    made every 1-2 months.

Continue reading “Record of the 7th MusicBrainz Summit”

Acoustic fingerprints: Is closed source OK?

Ever since my post about TRM hitting its limits, I’ve been in discussions with a reputable company who has offered to let the MusicBrainz community use their fingerprint server in exchange to a free license to the MusicBrainz live-data feed. While I am not ready to reveal who this company is, I do feel that … Continue reading “Acoustic fingerprints: Is closed source OK?”

Ever since my post about TRM hitting its limits, I’ve been in discussions with a reputable company who has offered to let the MusicBrainz community use their fingerprint server in exchange to a free license to the MusicBrainz live-data feed. While I am not ready to reveal who this company is, I do feel that I can trust these folks — this is not the first time we’ve chatted.

The straw-man deal that we’ve put together makes sense for MusicBrainz and this company. Unlike MusicBrainz’ relationship with Relatable, this relationship would be more balanced. Plus, we would not have to maintain the server ourselves. All around I feel good about this proposed deal. There is just one little snag.

They are uncomfortable with open sourcing their client.

While I am not an open source license Nazi, I have received tons of complaints about MusicBrainz using a technology that is not fully open. As a matter of fact, my most unpleasant dealings with the general public have been on this point (that the TRM server is closed source). And I’ve had unreasonable people shout unreasonable things at me over this point. Quite frankly I am not really interested in having to defend my position on this any further, but I fear that not having a working fingerprint solution may be more of a hassle than having to defend a closed source solution.

So, my question to you is this:

  1. Do you value having access to a fingerprint solution as part of MusicBrainz more than MusicBrainz being an end-to-end open solution?
  2. What arguments can we make for having this company open source their client, as Relatable did? I’ve argued the standard open source arguments and I think that there is still a small chance that we can persuade this company to open up. I need to construct a better argument and perhaps meet with them in person to hash this out further. What things should I argue?

Please keep your idealistic everything needs to be open arguments to yourself. I simply won’t bother reading them or responding to them. I really care to see if we can find a balance where we can maximize the value that MusicBrainz presents, even if it means compromising our values slightly. If you’re not ready to make a balanced argument, then please don’t.

NOTE: If we were to start using a closed source fingerprint solution, nothing else would change. None of the existing licenses for MusicBrainz would change. So, keep your pants on and stop frothing at the mouth.

MetaBrainz milestone: My first paycheck!

About a month ago, the MetaBrainz Foundation signed up its second customer (let’s call that customer Mystery Customer #2). In light of this and our current finances our Board of Directors approved for me to make this payment my very first paycheck. Early today the first payment from this customer hit our PayPal account and … Continue reading “MetaBrainz milestone: My first paycheck!”

About a month ago, the MetaBrainz Foundation signed up its second customer (let’s call that customer Mystery Customer #2). In light of this and our current finances our Board of Directors approved for me to make this payment my very first paycheck.

Early today the first payment from this customer hit our PayPal account and I cut myself the very first MetaBrainz paycheck ever! While this check for $2400 is measly pay for a years worth of work, its a start. With more customers on the horizon I can hope for a reasonable paycheck in the next year. And me getting paid is good since I can stop hunting for contract work to pay the bills — this will allow me to focus more of my time on MusicBrainz. And everyone knows that we need to implement more features, right?

A new Picard, a new libmusicbrainz, a new libtunepimp and now a paycheck! What a week, and its only tuesday!

P.S. I can’t reveal who our customers are, since they are building new services based on our data. These services have not been announced yet and us talking about who these customers are, would tip their hands. As soon as these companies go public with their services, I’ll be sure to tell everyone who they are.

Technorati Tags: , ,