“The box is open.”

That’s the tagline for a work-around website that delivers Pandora’s popular music streams to international listeners who have recently been shut out from the service.

GlobalPandora, an anonymously-operated service that bypasses Pandora’s block on international traffic, looks and appears to function like the Pandora service still available to U.S. audiences.

Users who have created their own Pandora profiles can even log-in through the globalPandora system to access their personalized listening options.

Pandora founder Tim Westergren, in an e-mail to RAIN, said that the blocking out of international listeners from the service left him “with a pit in [his] stomach.”

Westergren also noted that Pandora “must abide by the many copyright laws around the world – that includes making commercially reasonable efforts to prevent unauthorized use of Pandora.” He said that Pandora would not be able to support applications like globalPandora, and in fact “must periodically actively break them when we can.”

“I sure hope the record labels wise up soon,” Westergren closed. “[T]heir strategy (if there actually is one) is disastrous for artists.”

Being in the U.S., we aren’t able to test the effectiveness of this work-around ourselves. However it does appear that, at least for the time being, international listeners have their Pandora back.

Comment

1. So, the question is…if this workaround essentially “hacks” into the Pandora stream, is Pandora still responsible for the songs served internationally through the anonymous service?

   — David · Jan 15, 01:09 PM · #

2. IANAL
   As mentioned above, as long as Pandora makes “reasonable efforts” to prevent unauthorized use, they should be legally off the hook, so to speak. The better question would be, if Pandora just happens to “actively break them” on a regular schedule, that GlobalPandora can predict and work around on a timely manor, is Pandora still responsible.

   In short, there is a ton of ways that Pandora can uphold their legal obligations that don’t make all that much trouble for groups working around the problem.

   — Shane · Jan 15, 02:18 PM · #

3. “In short, there is a ton of ways that Pandora can uphold their legal obligations that don’t make all that much trouble for groups working around the problem.”

   That’s probably true…though that would still lead to the question of perceived liability…at least in the context of “from the RIAA’s point of view”. With the amounts of money (and zeal) the RIAA has poured into litigation over the past several years for infringement, I can’t see them leaving Pandora alone simply on the basis of “reasonable efforts”, because “reasonableness” is a subjective criterion. What’s to stop the RIAA from filing suit anyway, claiming Pandora isn’t doing enough to shutter access to the service from abroad, thereby “soaking” Pandora of capital in legal defense fees resulting in it’s eventual bankruptcy?

   I know this is a pessimistic point of view, but if there’s anything the past few years have taught us, the RIAA is not above any means of trying to maintain their members’ dying business models.

   — David · Jan 16, 02:09 PM · #

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