SeeqPod Music Search Engine Files For Chapter 11
By Anna Johnson on April 3rd, 2009SeeqPod, a popular search engine that generates playable media search results (e.g. MP3s you can play) has filed a petition for Chapter 11 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of California.
According to TechCrunch, SeeqPod has likely done this to avoid the outcome of lawsuits brought against it by major music labels such as Warner Music, Capitol Records and EMI.
SeeqPod provides the back-end search technology used by many music delivery sites. While SeeqPod generates playable media search results, it doesn’t, however, host the media files on its servers.
Despite this, it seems that because the service doesn’t discriminate between media files that are free to the public and pirated media files, the music industry views SeeqPod as facilitating copyright infringement.
In this regard, SeeqPod has positioned itself as being akin to regular search engines, which generate results from all kinds of sites (legal or not). It seems, however, that the major music labels just don’t buy that argument.
TechCrunch reports that SeeqPod recently began selling its source code to developers. Given that its application programming interface (API) has been so popular with developers, one wonders whether the company shouldn’t have done this sooner.
After all, there’s a big difference between selling playable media search technology – which has plenty of legitimate uses – and, as the music industry alleges, allowing users to play pirated videos and music. In other words, had SeeqPod merely sold its technology to others – rather than marketing the service itself – it might not have found itself at the center of several lawsuits…
Source: Robin Wauters, “Troubled SeeqPod Files For Bankruptcy Protection,” TechCrunch, March 31, 2009
