File Sharing Goes Mobile

Wireless

from the on-the-go dept

With all these different music download stores and file sharing apps, it was only a matter of time before everything started to go mobile. I recently wrote up an article at TheFeature about all the various music download offerings for mobile phones, but it looks like some are already going beyond that to offer some form of “file sharing” as well. EMI has talked about mobile file sharing in the past, but it seemed pretty watered down. Recently, Wippit, makers of an increasingly popular DRM technology that encourages limited file sharing announced plans to offer mobile file sharing by letting users get around many wireless carriers by sending the file in response to an SMS message. The latest, though, is that SK Telecom is showing off a mobile file sharing system in Korea that will let users swap music files, ringtones, videos and more via their 3G network. They admit that it has no copy protection at all, and even say, “we’re not thinking about that type of problem.” It’s not clear if that’s because they never plan to actually launch it, or they just don’t care. Given that the recording industry in Korea wanted to sue wireless carriers for offering MP3 playing phones (even after they agreed to forcibly degrade the sound quality), you have to wonder how long such an application would remain on the market. Still, it’s been said many times before: it’s only a matter of time until a real Napster-style file sharing app is written for mobile phones, whether by the carriers themselves or (more likely) independently. And still, everyone in the wireless and music industry seems to ignore this potential problem and insist that overpriced ringtone revenue will be around forever.