MetaBrainz Blog

[ 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: musicbrainz, web service

Continue reading “Web service ToS follow-up”

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: metabrainz, finances

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: fundraiser, metabrainz

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: metabrainz, fundraiser

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: metabrainz, board of directors