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And Finally Digital
Spotify blocked in House Of Representatives
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 1 February 2013
Ah, while P2P, or ‘peer-to-peer’, is something the big entertainment companies, and therefore the political types they lobby, associate with online piracy, plenty of legitimate content distribution services also use P2P technologies (in much the same way BitTorrent the technology is in itself entirely legit, despite that term’s negative connotations in content industry circles).
But no one seems to have told IT bosses on Capitol Hill in Washington, which means anyone connecting to the net from offices at the US House Of Representatives can’t use Spotify, which, it has emerged, is blocked because of the P2P elements of its technology.
This has come to light via US politics paper Politico, to whom a House spokesman said: “To help protect House data, our IT policy generally prohibits the use of peer-to-peer technologies while operating within the secure network. While Spotify is currently not authorised, we will continue to work with outside vendors to enable the popular services that improve member communication capabilities”.
Asked about the ban, a Spotify spokesman in America told the political publication: “It is a sad day when a few bureaucrats can block our nation’s leadership from enjoying free, secure access to over 20 million songs. Music is a common language that all political parties speak and should be used to bring the legislators of this great country together so they can solve the serious issues facing our nation”.
To be fair to House IT, I’m not sure unblocking Spotify is going to single-handedly solve any issues facing the nation. But given that lip-syncing is clearly in vogue in Washington at the moment, the streaming service would be useful for any office worker wanting to mime along to the new Destiny’s Child track while at their desk.
