Legal music downloads

[Knoxville]

I'll just sit here and wait for napsters army of lawyers to drag me away then

[directhex]

It has come to our attention that there are a number of inaccurate statements posted by various sources on the Internet regarding the security of Napster and Napster To Go. As Napster's CTO, I would like to officially state that neither Napster To Go, Napster, nor Windows Media DRM have been hacked. In the interest of providing the most accurate information to consumers, the following is some background on the subject.

There is a program that allows a user to record the playback of tracks directly from the computer's sound card. This process can be likened to the way people used to record songs from the radio onto cassette tapes, but instead of capturing the music on a tape, the file is converted into a new, unprotected digital format. This program does not break the encryption of the files, which can only be recorded one at a time making the process quite laborious. It would take 10 hours to convert 10 hours of music in this manner. It is important to note that this program is not specific to Napster; files from all legal subscription and pay-per-download services can be copied in this way.

We hope that the information provided above clarifies the matter and puts questions regarding the security of Napster and Napster To Go to rest. Napster's mission is to provide consumers with a legal environment in which they can experience and discover the world's largest collection of digital music. We believe that artists should be compensated for their work and intellectual property rights should be respected. While we acknowledge there are always going to be those who do not share our belief, we remain committed to providing the most enjoyable and flexible digital music experience for those who do.

it's not like they're unaware of the problem.

and perhaps i'm just naive in thinking it's hypocritical to suggest copy protection isn't god's gift, pay for copy protection, and break it, all in one go

[miral78uk]

so what where really saying is for all big name acts and all the big songs youre just better off buying an overpriced CD! Even so if u copy a CD to MP3 arnt u in breach again??? lol

The whole situation seems to suck.... balls

[Jonny M]

No, because say an album costs £7.99 on iTunes - that's for a 128k download. No box. No booklet. No CD.

That same CD generally costs £8.49 on Amazon. That's 50p more. For a physical CD (oh no my hard drive broke and all the songs I bought were on it), a nice booklet, and a box so I can easily identify it on my shelf.

I can then either listen to this CD in my hifi, or rip it to any unprotected format of my liking for playback on a portable MP3 player.

Edit: With regards to "is it legal to rip your CDs to a portable player" I assume it comes under 'fair use'. But I'd like to see the RIAA/BPI/whatever sue me for it.

[directhex]

No, because say an album costs £7.99 on iTunes - that's for a 128k download. No box. No booklet. No CD.

That same CD generally costs £8.49 on Amazon. That's 50p more. For a physical CD (oh no my hard drive broke and all the songs I bought were on it), a nice booklet, and a box so I can easily identify it on my shelf.

I can then either listen to this CD in my hifi, or rip it to any unprotected format of my liking for playback on a portable MP3 player.

Edit: With regards to "is it legal to rip your CDs to a portable player" I assume it comes under 'fair use'. But I'd like to see the RIAA/BPI/whatever sue me for it.

no fair use laws in the uk, ripping copyrighted cd to mp3 is illegal (though unenforced)

and most cds on sale today are not real cds, they're designed not to rip & contain 32kbit wma files for use on computer (see http://apebox.net/index.php?section=...nts/music.rant)

[utdmleach]

and most cds on sale today are not real cds, they're designed not to rip & contain 32kbit wma files for use on computer

Goddamit, thats rediculous arghhh! So is this happening to all new releases?!

[miral78uk]

ok then so this ALL sucks! Someone bomb and wipe all music outta existance! back to the gaming forums for me then lol thanks for the input guys. I think buying CD and making MP3 for me will do, ( i can find a way around encryption

[directhex]

Goddamit, thats rediculous arghhh! So is this happening to all new releases?!

most, not all. fortunately in the UK we have a VERY strong history of independant record labels - and where band X might be released by $big_label in the USA on copy protected discs, their local UK label will be somewhat more forthcoming. not to say sony-bmg-emi-vivendi don't have massive control, of course

http://ukcdr.org/issues/cd/bad/ provides a fairly good list of known bads.





you have one friend and one friend only:



the CDDA logo means 'free from copy protection'. largely because it's illegal to use the CDDA logo on material which doesn't meet the CDDA spec laid out by sony & philips.

[Knoxville]

and perhaps i'm just naive in thinking it's hypocritical to suggest copy protection isn't god's gift, pay for copy protection, and break it, all in one go

It would be if I paid for it.

[Jonny M]

The thing is, most of the top-40 buying general public couldn't care less.

[directhex]

The thing is, most of the top-40 buying general public couldn't care less.

which is how they've managed to push out so much copy-protected stuff. most people don't notice a problem until much later, and assume it's their mistake & not a built-in design issue.

of course, the nosedive in cd sales in japan from copy protected discs disappeared once all protected discs were removed from sale & the real things put back. clever people those japs.

[doctor_prox]

Argh, heres me thinking i could just sign up to some site and download some mp3s legally. All this protection is a joke.
I registered on one of those o2d.com sites because they have a 'stream for 1p' thing, which i thought was good, get a big variety of music for a small price, HOWEVER the quality is pathetic, something like 32kbps. Im guessing this is to stop people recording it, but you cant even listen to that kind of quality.

If only everyone hadn't abused the likes of kazaa etc.

[doctor_prox]

Amazon also do this free music thing which is ok. I havent found much good on it yet but you never know. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...344791-0632600

[directhex]

there's a vibraphone remix of Air's Playground Love on there, which is pretty good

[Marcos]

I'd go with the same unlicenesed illegal page someone mentionned earlier, I've heard good feedback, and sounds like great value

edit by hexxeh. that's the thing. the product they offer is great - so great the recording industry would never allow it

[Marcos]

So *that* site is actually illegal? All they do is offer high quality, fast speed downloads of illegal copies for a small price?