Multiply User Calls for Boycott
Multiply Platinum Account holder Shawn calls for a boycott of the social networking service over its abrupt and disrespectful removal of music features.
To all my friends and contacts:
Multiply makes its money through advertising. As people click on pages and links, Multiply gets money from the advertisers’ links and ads that are displayed on your pages.
There is a movement afoot to boycott Multiply for one entire day, that being this Friday, January 18th. This is to protest the recent changes made to forbid the sharing of music and also the limiting of music uploads. I am a customer as are you all. We deserve to be treated with respect.
While I understand that Multiply has a right to conduct its business as it sees fit, the manner in which it has made the changes is very poor customer service and frustrating to those of us who have invested many hours setting up our sites.
Let us send a message to Multiply: treat us like shit and we will affect your business model. We are your customers whether you want to treat us that way or not.
I will not be on next Friday from 12:01 AM to 11:59 PM (at a minimum). Would you care to join me?
(And for those who live in a different time zone, just do your own 12:01 AM to 11:59 PM. Let’s make it go round the world.)
If the problem with the music features was illegal file-sharing, Multiply could’ve processed DMCA takedown notices the same way YouTube does, weeding out piracy while keeping Multiply musicians happy. Instead, they globally cripple their features at their customers’ expense.
See, this is why Digg partners with CBS and The Wall Street Journal while Multiply scavenges deals with some third-world TV station. Even in the face of corporate copyright pressure, Digg actually has some goddamn respect for its customers.
The business of consumer-generated media requires the balls to stand up for consumers generating media. Clearly, Multiply does not have the balls for this business.
Between MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster, I have little time or tolerance for the no-platform, non-OpenSocial Multiply. In fact, I’ve stripped my Multiply page of all content. Supporting Shawn’s boycott will be a piece of cake for me.
(Via Lusanto.)
multiply is being sued by capital records, among others. it’s possible that the changes to music functions at multiply have something to do with that.
YouTube is getting sued too. Instead of globally crippling their features, they process DMCA takedowns notices on a case-to-case basis.
Unlike YouTube, Multiply would rather cripple its features than stand up for its customers.
No matter how many explanations Multiply would say to its users about crippling the music features, I think they’re already haunted for Friday the 18th tomorrow.
Sir Mike, one of the users in Multiply calls the boycott OA, in my opinion. Click here and teach this guy a lesson. I’m already infuriated yesterday.
The problem with that guy is that he thinks this boycott is a “big deal”. As I said in my post, with the plethora of better social networks out there, boycotting Multiply is ridiculously easy.
Ganun? Pa’nong magiging “big deal” ang pag-boycott sa Multiply eh hindi lang naman sila ang nag-iisang Social Network site dito! The human civilization has survived the Bubonic Plague, Two World Wars and lived through terrorist attacks that we could still survive without Multiply. By the way, I’m prowling the net for much better Social Network Sites.
Sir Mike, how can I put images here?
Same way you would on most any site, Lusanto: IMG tags. Post them as long as they’re not too big. If they are too big, just link to them.
Metal, I don’t know what you’re looking for in a social network, but top of mind for me right now are MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster.
Thanks Sir Mike. I would like this image from one of my contacts.
Unique, isn’t it?
rejoinder: (top of page):
obviously, we don’t know what the boycott will be like until it happens. however, since there’s several people boycotting the boycott (they’re calling it bandwidth friday, i don’t think it’ll make much difference to multiply.
unlike youtube, which has a cash cow backing them up, multiply is a small start-up. papa google won’t come along and fight their legal battles for them. multiply is on their own, which makes the stakes much higher.
multiply also said quite a few months ago that they’re coming out with a new music solution sometime in early Q1 2008. so even though they’re pulling the plug on their previous music system, they’ve already said that they have a new one in the works.
and for those independent folks who still want to share their music on multiply, not a problem. all they have to do is attach their mp3 files to a blog post.
in my opinion, though multiply is small, they’re a quality social networking system. i still believe that when the bubble bursts, multiply is going to be one of the few left standing.
The TERMS and the LAW were both clear regarding file sharing from the moment these “boycotters” joined. Those that chose to ignore the terms and continued to abuse a feature after repeated warnings, given chance after chance (some having their accounts canceled only to come back and do it all over again) have no one to blame but themselves.
If Multiply and it’s non leeching members are lucky, they will make this boycott a permanent thing so we other and new members can enjoy all the other wonderful features for what it was designed for and in peace instead of constantly hearing “WhY Cnt I DoWnLoAd Muzik???. Awwww..I GoTz Ta’ dO LiMzWrE when My Mawm aIn’T LoKin”.
It’s a social networking site. The rest isn’t rocket science. Feel free to make the boycott permanent. We won’t miss a single one of you.
I think this one maligned your POV about this post, Sir Mike. Here’s the link.
And yes, here’s an alternative to Multiply:
http://xmultiplied.ning.com/
He’s a funny guy, Lusanto. He thinks all music downloading is illegal. He forgets that there are actually musicians on Multiply.
As much as I like Multiply, I deleted my profile. I don’t want to be a part of it when the sh** goes down about illegal file sharing. Who knows how far down the chain they will take this lawsuit?
Yes, there are musicians. But the mp3 files in your dog Lusanto’s page aren’t his creations.
Lusanto, unless your name is Akira Kushida or whatever, I think that multiply closed downloading because of people like you.
No, Multiply shut down music downloads because they’re weak — too weak to stand up for their legitimate customers and process DMCA takedown notices on a case-to-case basis.
i’ve been on multiply since 2004 and i’ve seen them process many DMCA takedown notices on a case-by-case basis.
what’s going on now is beyond a DMCA takedown notice.
and indie musicians can still share their tunes on multiply, not only in the music section, but as attachments in their blog sections.
Oh crap, stop this defending stuff for Multiply. They shouldn’t have put that music sharing ek-ek if they know that music sharing stuff is illegal (for Pepe’s sake, sa Amerika naka-base ang site na ito ano! Most of these Kanuto’s know enough laws that majority of them have LAWYERS kaya wag nyo na ibato ang sisi sa mga users–they just use what their site offers to the max like any consumer/customer does). Multiply’s got webmasters who know what people are stuffing in their Multiply page and it would have been easy to disable or delete an account if they know that there’s ILLEGAL music downloading going on or something that happened to this blogger:
http://scobleizer.com/2008/01/03/ive-been-kicked-off-of-facebook/
Oh by the way, I found this social network site that recently caught my eye and I just recently moved there. It’s called Virb.com and I discovered it while I was browsing for different social network sites possibly to replace my Multiply account. Although it doesn’t have the music sharing capability that Multiply used to have (and caused this uproar), it gives the user the capability to customize his/her site. Or if you’re looking for something else, here’s a link that led me to virb.com’s arms:
http://mashable.com/2007/07/09/beautiful-social-networks/
You be the judge if you want to move out of Multiply but this goes to show that what Multiply did was BAD. SUPER BAD.
the fact that scoble got kicked off of facebook because he was accessing people’s personal info, and was later reinstated because there was a fuss says that multiply is bad? i missed that connection.
the fact that virb pages are customizable, i missed how that one shows that multiply is bad also.
personally, although i like how highly customizable multiply’s personal sites are, i like the privacy settings and customizability of the inbox more. i like that i can have conversations with people in a way that often doesn’t happen in other blogging spheres. there’s level’s of trust you can build on multiply that aren’t possible in other places (except, perhaps, if you use Intense Debate for your replies).
“the fact that virb pages are customizable, i missed how that one shows that multiply is bad also.”
Ay, T—ay naku, yoko na magdagdag at baka mapaaway pa ako—Oh well, what I mean when I said that Multiply is super bad KASI PO, ALAM NAMAN SIGURO NG MULTIPLY SA NANGYARI SA NAPSTER EH LALAGAY-LAGAY SILA NG SERVICE NA YAN TAPOS TATANGGALIN DIN! AT HINDI TUNGKOL KAY MR. SCOBLE (Kelan ba nagkaasunto yung Napster? Di ba dati na? Mga early 2000?) NASA AMERIKA NAKA-BASE ANG SITE NA YAN KAYA SIGURO NAMAN EH MAY ALAM SILA SA POSIBLENG CONSEQUENCES KUNG ANUMAN ANG PINAGLALAGAY NILANG SERVICE SA SITE NILA. By the way, meron pang mga independent-run sites na nag-ooffer ng free downloading ng music AND YET—hindi pa sila pinapasara ng mga record companies. Hmm… (think. think.)
With respect to privacy, I don’t know if you’ve browsed through other network sites but surely a lot of them (network sites) have privacy settings. Believe me, I’ve browsed through different sites and I advice you not to trust easily on anyone regardless of what network site you’re on. Nothing beats the traditional steps of getting to know people–even on cyberspace. You have to try to get to know people before you trust them. And that’s when investigation and intuition comes in.
(Postscript: I just found out that barefoot meg is a foreigner. I don’t know if she’ll understand the Tagalog language parts of my reply. Just ask Mike Abundo or just consult um, babelfish?)
This is for the nth time, I’ll surely miss the music sharing. It’s a shame I won’t be able to have all the Toku theme songs, Motown, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and traditional Gaelic music for my personal collection. *Sniff!*
*Sigh* Some good things never last. T_T
[...] are connected. They’re smart enough to use OpenSocial, they didn’t lure users through illegal filesharing, they didn’t lure users through nontransactional online “storefronts”, and they [...]
[...] 4. - And this post. [...]
Whine, whine, whine…
Last time I checked, the music module is still there and it is still working. I don’t see what the big deal is — they simply removed the download capability which was really a naive service in the first place. If you want to pirate music, go to Limewire or RapidShare. If you want to share your music, then direct users to your band’s site.
Josef, you’re the most irritating piece of humanity! Why are you keep on defending Multiply’s policies? You’re an idiot, per se.
Meg: I hate your guts. Screw you. BAKEROU!!!!
Lusanto,
I’m not really defending Multiply. I guess I just don’t want a subpoena showing up on my door. Sharing other people’s copyrighted music is illegal. I’m sorry that you have to resort to calling me and Meg names.
I’m an idiot, per se? So I’m not really an idiot? You’re confusing me (and it seems yourself as well) with the name calling.