Pandora chiude i battenti fuori dagli USA - Update!

Ho appena ricevuto una mail da Pandora (= il miglior sito oggi online per ascoltare musica) con cui comunicano che sono costretti a chiudere Pandora a chi non risiede negli USA.

Non ho parole per descrivere quanto sia miope, stupida e inutile l'ennesima iniziativa volta, di fatto, a bloccare servizi di streaming radio.

Non ho voglia di entrare nel dettaglio delle responsabilità e mi limito a segnalare che:

1) non servirà a niente bloccare Pandora fuori dagli USA (ci si mette meno di 45 secondi a connettersi con un altro IP)

2) bloccare servizi AMATI/ADORATI come Pandora contribuisce solo ad aumentare l'insoddisfazione nei confronti di chi governa e il fastidio, già enorme, di noi utenti verso le Major (e associazioni di categoria) 

3) come è possibile non trovare una soluzione giuridica/commerciale per un servizio web geniale come questo, al fine di renderlo utilizzabile in tutto il mondo?
Come è possibile che un'applicazione davvero ottima e innovativa per ascoltare musica (= che fa quello che gli utenti vogliono) non si possa usare per un problema di royalties?
Come è possibile che nel 2007 il progresso debba sottostare a normativa di altre epoche?

4) la prima società che risolverà il problema - Yahoo? - (eventualmente acquisendo Pandora) potrebbe avere un grandissimo ritorno d'immagine in Rete (e di business futuro) 

5) Save Internet Radio

Pandora Internet Radio - Find New Music, Listen to Free Web Radio

Il testo della mail di Pandora:

"Dear Pandora listener, 

Today we have some extremely disappointing news to share with you. Due to international licensing constraints, we are deeply, deeply sorry to say that we must begin proactively preventing access to Pandora's streaming service for most countries outside of the U.S.

It is difficult to convey just how disappointing this is for us. Our vision remains to eventually make Pandora a truly global service, but for the time being, we can no longer continue as we have been. As a small company, the best chance we have of realizing our dream of Pandora all around the world is to grow as the licensing landscape allows.

We show your IP address is ...., which indicates you are listening from Italy. If you believe you are seeing this by mistake, we offer our sincere apologies and ask that you please reply to this email.    

Delivery of Pandora is based on proper licensing from the people who created the music - we have always believed in honoring the guidelines as determined by legislators and regulators, artists and songwriters, and the labels and publishers they work with. In the U.S. there is a federal statute that provides this license for all the music streamed on Pandora. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent license outside the U.S. and there is no global licensing organization to enable us to legitimately offer Pandora around the world. Other than in the U.K., we have not yet been able to make significant progress in our efforts to obtain a sufficient number of international licenses at terms that would enable us to run a viable business. The volume of listening on Pandora makes it a very expensive service to run. Streaming costs are very high, and since our inception, we have been making publishing and performance royalty payments for every song we play.

Until now, we have not been able to tell where a listener is based, relying only on zip code information provided upon registration. We are now able to recognize a listener's country of origin based on the IP address from which they are accessing the service. Consequently, on May 3rd, we will begin blocking access to Pandora to listeners from your country. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

We will be posting updates on our blog regarding our ongoing effort to launch in other countries, so please stay in touch. We will keep a record of your existing stations and bookmarked artists and songs, so that when we are able to launch in your country, they will be waiting for you. We deeply share your sense of disappointment and greatly appreciate your understanding. 

-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

This is a one time account message"

Update!

Tim, il fondatore di Pandora, mi ha appena lasciato questo commento: