Late last week MySpace responded to notices from the RIAA by banning all ProjectPlaylist widgets from its site. Yesterday Facebook followed suit.
“The RIAA initially contacted Facebook last summer requesting the removal of the Project Playlist application for copyright violation, and recently reopened those communications. We have forwarded the RIAA’s letters to Project Playlist so it can work directly with that organization and music labels on a resolution. In the meantime, the application must be removed to comply with the Facebook Platform Terms of Service…
Our hope and expectation is that the parties can resolve their disagreements in a manner that satisfies the developer and copyright holder, that continues to offer a great experience to music fans, and that doesn’t discourage other developers from using Platform to share their creativity and test new ideas.”
That Facebook held out longer than MySpace is a surprise to many. Though perhaps Owen Van Natta, Facebook’s former chief revenue officer, who recently became the CEO of ProjectPlaylist still has a few friends at the social networker.
This could prove a fatal blow for ProjectPlaylist, who until last week had been growing rapidly. SonyBMG cut a deal to license music to the playlist community on Saturday. But it appears that the other three majors, who have been negotiationg with project playlist all Fall. aren’t as close to deals as had been rumored.
