Sony’s Grouper.com gets SEWED by Universal Music Group

First, for all of you that don’t know Grouper.com yet; it is a files and video sharing site much like Mydonkey was on which you can also upload your videos and manage your friends network in the same way Youtube.com does. A few months ago Sony bought it for a modest $65 million and now the Sony plans are becoming clear.

The functionality of Grouper has become enormous and what’s more it is presented in a very user-friendly way, simple and easy manageable. Have a look at some videos on Grouper.com. One thing I like is that there are buttons next to the videos with which you can directly post these to your profile on e.g. Blogger.com or Myspace.com. This makes it very easy to upload a video to your blog, no html knowledge needed here.

So Grouper is very good, in my opinion it is even better than Youtube. The sad thing is that their community and video database isn’t as large as Youtube’s (yet).

SEWED

You will probably understand what all the fuzz is about, it’s the online document sharing component of Grouper. If you become a member you can literally share all your computers’ content, including music and video files with anyone you added to your Grouper network. With the demise of the bit-torrent sites this has become a very attractive alternative for everyone who wants to share files. Now Universal Music Group decided they have had enough and are preparing lawsuits.

I wonder where this will stop. Microsoft’s new MSN messenger also offers you the opportunity to share files. Are those companies who make it possible to share file always liable? What about the videos of music you video to others? I’d love to hear your opinion about this. I wonder who will win this.

Got any ideas for tests or do you want strategic / consulting advise?: Have a look at my profile Regards, Ray

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to profy RSS feed!