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Music-Sharing Plans for London Underground

Daniel Fleshbourne   on 07 November 2007 - 11:31 · 10 comments & 6134 views

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Three computer scientists are hoping to turn London's Underground subway system into a thriving network for sharing music unencumbered by copyright. The project, London Undersound, would let commuters download and upload tracks to each other via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, said Joanne Brewer, a doctoral student in informatics at the University of California at Irvine, who is currently doing research in London.

London's Underground subway system is a dead zone for mobile phones. No signals penetrate the grimy 19th century tunnels and there are no transponders within to allow calls or text messages. Nonetheless, people still tap away on their mobiles offline, composing text messages and playing games, Brewer said.

View: The full story @ PCWorld

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#1 Kushan on 07 Nov 2007 - 12:00
Any time I think of London underground + Music, I can't help but think of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYVJSOFZxDE
#2 iSimx on 07 Nov 2007 - 14:01
yes that would be excellent! Hope they do go ahead with it.
#3 Croquant on 07 Nov 2007 - 14:59
And how are they going to get around the anti-piracy laws? I'm sure the British RIAA/MPAA clones will love this plan.
(3 replies) #4 Lant on 07 Nov 2007 - 16:28
I really don't care about being able to share music while on the tube... At rush hour your so packed in theres no room to do anything - but if people are going to do something get mobiles working in those tunnels. And anyway if I wanted to get music theres my computer at home.
#4.1 Samboini on 07 Nov 2007 - 19:36
No. Imagine how much worse your rush hour would be with everyone talking on their phone. Pure hell, that's what it will be.
#4.2 Lant on 07 Nov 2007 - 21:26
Not really... with the crappy track they have you can barely hear anything anyway.
#4.3 Arsenal on 08 Nov 2007 - 07:03
That would be terrible, in fact annoying ringtones and loud selfimportant idiots yelling on their phones are about the only things i can imagine that would make catching a tube at rush hour worse than it is.
#5 2xSilverKnight on 07 Nov 2007 - 20:32
whats up with the british and their wi-fi networks all over the country.

too much wi-fi beaming in the air is not good at all
no matter how they say they don't have any evidence of it is pure bs. this is called protecting their business
statistical evidence excuses is rubbish anyway. This not about statistics, headaches can come from overexposure.
most of the people don't suspect cell phone tower and wi-fi to their health problems.
#6 rob.derosa on 08 Nov 2007 - 09:56
Quite a few stations/lines now have mobile antennas in them.
#7 +mrbester on 08 Nov 2007 - 14:59
Less of the "grimy 19th century tunnels" please. Let's see how grimy your tunnels are after over a century of continuous use, originally with coal fired engines dragging the great and the good around, but with no time to scrub the hundreds of miles of tunnels clean of soot. There's barely enough time to gather up all the litter people throw out the windows overnight as well as the engineering work involved in keeping the oldest (and deepest) "subway" system in the world operational to worry about such fripperies as a grime-free wall.

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