Emusic Tracking MP3s On Napster

Nice Geek sent us a wired story talking about EMusic tracking MP3s on Napster. Several issues: mainly the flaws of using MD5 checksums to determine the source of the MP3, but also the problem that using a bot violates Napster's terms of service. I don't really have any problems with this, but it'll be interesting to see what the next step will be.

Comments

This doesnt make sense.

[pallex]

How will this work? If N people mp3 a song, then unless they all use the same software, and the same options, they`ll get different files. Some may normalize the wav file before mp3`ing. Some will trim the file to remove silence at the end (for example, the penultimate track may have loads of silence to `hide` the bonus track).
If this took off, mp3 encoders could invert the song, or add some random bits to the end of the song.

Basically, there is no way they can do this. They`d have to constantly be downloading songs - any song - and then either listening to it, or use yet more vapourware - a tool to analyse a song and guess which song it actually is - before taking action.

I cant see how this would work!

This sounds familiar

[91degrees]

Sounds like the BSA's "Pirate software detector vans" that can detect when you're using an illegal copy of a program.

They just want to scare poeple into behaving.

Re:And why not?

[Darth Yoshi]

A few quibbles.

Whilst the move to digital, downloadable music is inevitable at this point, Napster has made sure that the RIAA will move as slowly as possible whilst aiming for maximum control over every aspect of online music.

I would disagree. If anything Napster has accelerated the industry's move to online distribution. RIAA (and the music industry in general) is an established bureacracy who believe the adage, "If we're making tons of money from brick and mortar stores, why should we go online"? Napster et al, have given the music industry a well deserved kick in the butt.

Napster really is not the future of online music, ...

Strictly speaking, I agree, but I think something Napster-like may be.

and has merely solidifed the opposition of a lot of artists to making their music available online

And support from a lot of other artists, especially (but not exclusivly) indie artists.

teenagers won't go out and buy a Brittany Spears CD

You say this like it's a bad thing. :-)

b) theft is still theft - the artists have not given their permission to do this and so anyone uploading their tracks onto Napster is infringing upon their rights to control what they produce.

And here is the crux of the matter. A) The artists often do not own the songs the write and sing, the record companies do. Many artists get little or nothing from "their" music. B) Considering the record industries "creative accounting" practices (i.e., screwing the artists), many people seem to find it difficult to accept the record companies claim of the higher moral ground.

I want to enjoy music I can download, and Napster stands in the way of this.

You're entitled to your opinion. To restate my opinion, I think Napster has been a wakeup call and the record companies will have to move damn fast to come up with a consumer acceptable online alternative.

Emusic also sponsors open source Linux projects...

[big.ears]

Emusic is one of the sponsors of the Freeamp open source music player (which has limited support for .ogg formats, and is available for Linux and Windows). They have teamed with a company called Relatable, and another project called MusicBrainz, to categorize and catalog mp3s and cds. Relatable has a signaturing system that I believe uses acoustic fingerprinting--which is robust to small errors (or maybe even large errors) in songs. MusicBrainz takes these fingerprints and uses them to determine what songs you actually have, and then can use collaboritive filtering techniques to suggest playlists to you. I think this combination and seamless integration is making freeamp a very attractive player, although it still needs a little work and a little more help from interested developers.

What does all of this have to do with napster and you? Well, freeamp allows you to download/stream music from emusic fairly easily (for a fee--something like $10 a month). So, if the napster distribution channel dries up, they become a quite attractive alternative. No more crappy searches, no more little red dots beside the songs, linux integration, artist-tipping support. Now, I'm not saying that emusic's actions here are good or bad, but do have a legal approach to digital music, while napster/gnutella/etc are questionable at the very least. They do support an open source project as well.

Re:Finally!

[GeekDork]

Your modem/DSL/ISDN adapter is a tool for theft. Throw it out of your window immediately or I will sue your nuts off, bubba... ;-)

This discussion is old and boring. Napster itself is a tool for exchanging music. It is, however, used to exchange "illegal" music(???).

EMusic is using a bot on thre service and therefore should be banned from the network as anyone caught running one. I don't want to hear someone cry "it's a good bot!" or stuff like that. EMusic violates Napster' s TOS and even makes it public. There's no excuse for plain stupidity.

Aaaah! My blood pressure's coming down again...