Cracking Down on MP3s at the Office

jhaberman writes "News.com has a story about how corporations are now starting to crack down on networked MP3's, not necessarily for the reasons you might think." Talks about legal issues, as well as bandwidth issues, and the simple issue of employees wasting their employers time.

But the best quote from the article...

[chennes]

"Some of these corporations, we are told, have their own little networks--that is very clearly illegal."
--RIAA President Cary Sherman

Man, I hope this one was taken out of context!!

uh, taco?

[Anonymous Coward]

from the but-i-need-those-tunes-to-live dept.

CmdrTaco - I think you'll be fine. Last I checked, you're not a blonde female, and your mp3's arent repititions of "Breathe in .... Breathe out .... Breathe in .... Breathe out ...."

Re:Bring your MP3's to work on CD-Rom...

[usr122122121]

These days it's tantamount to having porno on the corporate fileserver.

so, what if you work for a porn distribution corporation? are mp3s okay then?

Thank jebus...

[DigitalHammer]

At my workplace, the woman in the cubicle neighboring mine plays Hanson and Bette Midler mp3s off of her personal server on open-air earphones for 5 hours straight. Everyone within a 10 foot radius hates her because of that. Even the boss tells her it's reducing our performance-ever since she set up that server, our productivity and innovation has gone down dramatically. The boss decided to shut down the server to get us back on track, but the RIAA got to him before he had the chance.

We're probably the only people glad that the RIAA is cracking down on businesses with mp3 filled servers. :)

Re:'bots.

[The_Messenger]

What do your lamer Scottish friends say when you tell them you've got a .us domain? "But it spells Locutus! I am so very clever!" Oh, yes, laddie... now run along now and play with your Next Generation action figures! By the way, who wants to bet that this picture [locut.us] was taken at a Star Trek convention where Mr. Sanity was wearing a homemade officer's jumpsuit?

Re:But the best quote from the article...

[Verizon Guy]

Why of course. We need to outlaw LANs, because just like Napster and WinMX and Kazaa etc... they have the capability of exchanging files and/or other data with other people.

Clearly a travesty.

Are there any other reasons?

[Speare]

• [C]orporations are now starting to crack down on networked MP3's, not necessarily for the reasons you might think. [The article talks] about legal issues, as well as bandwidth issues, and the simple issue of employees wasting their employers time.

Oh, well, I guess they would be cracking down for the reasons I might think.

Unconstitutional

[Procrasturbator]

It's unpatriotic. I'll never let them take away my MP3 of "Let the Eagle Soar".

Re:My company's policy is to fire

[abe ferlman]

our company has installed special "anti-fun" headsets on all employee units. We called them "shit-colored glasses" for a while until Helen lost her job for saying it at a staff meeting; now we just call them "productivity goggles".

They are some pretty amazing technology- they filter out bright colors from your field of vision so you won't be distracted, and they give you a mild electrical shock (akin to the type of therapy used to treat homosexuality in the '50's) whenever you have a creative thought. It's pretty amazing, you can really focus on what you set out to do so long as it's mind-numbingly banal.

But other than that working for the MPAA isn't too bad.

Re:Well, duh!

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't think anyone actually =worked= for PENNDOT.

Yes, please save us from ourselves

[smcavoy]

"What you really want to do is protect people from themselves," --Frank Gillman (Guy who works at company that makes web filters for adults at work).

Bring on the straight jackets, and urine testing.

Re:But the best quote from the article...

[Anonymous Coward]

Outlaw HUMANS. All crime is commited by HUMANS. All circumvention is done by HUMANS. we must rid the earth of HUMANS

you are all wasting the corporate dime...

[edrugtrader]

by reading this article!

back to work!

Re:Fascist bastards!

[Anonymous Coward]

There is not plenty of HDD space. Were I work HDD space is a real issue. I don't care if people want to use and download MP3, but I object when every month the same few people manage to fill a 56gig server with MP3s. I have told them to burn them to cd or store them on their local HDD, but they just won't do it for so reason. So recently I have just been deleting them with no notice, after they have finshed abusing me, some of them are starting to get the message and store them somewhere else. But it really has be a long and far to painful road.

I can understand why some companies are taking action against mp3 users. While I think people should be allowed to listen to music at work, I don't think they have a right to it, the way some people think they have. If they do the right thing, recognise that using mp3 is a favour and don't allow them to get in the way of other far more important work related tasks and resources, then I don't have a problem with.

Re:Bring your MP3's to work on CD-Rom...

[neuroticia]

Only if they contain loud moaning sounds.

-Sara

Re:But the best quote from the article...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm whistling a copyrighted song as I post this. Does that make me a terrorist?