What is "choruss"

Choruss was a three-year experimental effort launched in 2008 by Warner Music Group and record-industry/Internet technology expert Jim Griffin to develop a licensed system for peer-to-peer music file sharing among college students. The idea was to establish a voluntary, blanket licensing system for users of college networks, experimenting with different licensing models and technology at different universities. Although the project was supported by many universities, the National Music Publishers Association, and three of the four major record labels at the time—Warner, Sony BMG, and EMI, with Universal being the only holdout—the service never launched, and the project was discontinued when its charter ended in late 2010.

According to Griffin, Choruss wasn't viable primarily due to the music industry's failure to coordinate licensing among the various rights holders with a stake in sound recordings. Without the functionality of a central registry, it was anticipated that less than half of the rights holders could be identified for the music students would be sharing. Doubtful that record companies would fund development of a global rights registry themselves, Griffin and his company is now working with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to develop the International Music Registry (IMR).