For sale: Second-hand MP3s!

Tired of that new Britney Spears single? A new service called Bopaboo offers the unlikely prospect of selling your MP3s, uploading songs in the same way that you would trade in used CDs.

However, the difference between an MP3 and a used CD is that even after you give it away (or sell it), it's still on your computer. Create or upload a copy and the original is still there on your desktop.

That doesn't seem to bother Bopaboo. "Stop illegally sharing and start legally selling!" they bellow on their website. "Buy DRM-free mp3's [sic] starting @ $0.25."

Bopaboo presumes that any song uploaded to the site is legally obtained, and they plan to make users sign a contract saying so. But just as used CD shops can be places to launder ill-gotten goods, so could a filesharer upload their latest torrent's-worth of songs – and then turn a tidy profit from clueless Bopaboodniks.

In fact, there's nothing stopping music pirates from filling Bopaboo's servers with their illicit booty, not just collecting kudos – as they would on filesharing networks – but collecting real, bankable money. Take one copy of Britney Spears's Womanizer, make a million copies, upload to Bopaboo, wait and – well, if Bopaboo became the success story it hopes to be – buy a house.

Then again, Bopaboo will probably join the piles of crackpot Web 2.0 ideas that never found their angel investors. The site is in "beta", is invitation-only and hasn't even chosen its "leadership team". In fact, all they really have are some screenshots and a ridiculous name ...

Knowing Silicon Valley, the FBI is just around the corner.


Original article here