Gracenote v. Roxio CDDB Suit Settled

An anonymous reader writes with this update: "As reported via the usual sources, Roxio announced today that the lawsuit (read all about it on slashdot) with gracenote has been settled. To fresh up your memory: Gracenote ('cddb') sued Roxio because they switched from cddb to freedb for identification of audio CDs. Discussion on slashdot was active, especially questioning if gracenote really owned the titles. David Hyman, Gracenote CEO, added, 'We look forward to a long and mutually successful relationship between our companies through this new license for intellectual property and current and advanced music recognition services.' End of quote. Do I need say more than 'corporate lawyers'?"

Comments

Gracenote is Rambus

[Nailer]

Anyone else see the parallels?

Sealed agreement?

[bani]

What are they hiding?

Maybe the fact that Gracenote's suit had no merit whatsoever, and in order to save face, they licensed cddb to Roxio instead of being publically bitchslapped?

Settlement

[GnulixRulz]

It is likely that Gracenote paid Roxio either cash or gave them access to some of their assets.

I looks like it is more critical to Gracenote to have an agreement with Roxio, rather than vice-versa. The masses don't care where their CD information comes from, they just use Roxio's software, and it works. Roxio has the pick of either CDDB or FreeDB, both are reasonably complete.

Gracenote, on the other hand, has to compete against a free service, and this seems like a bid to stay competitive by allying with a company that gives them access to a large part of the market, while keeping the option of shaking down smaller vendors of software, that users might want to switch to in the future.

Does anyone know more details?

[jchawk]

"Roxio, Inc. (Nasdaq: ROXI - news), the Digital Media Company, and Gracenote today announced the signing of a multi-year license that provides Gracenote CDDB as the exclusive CD recognition service to current and future Roxio customers through Roxio's Easy CD Creator, Toast and SoundStream current and future products. Concurrent with the licensing agreement, Gracenote and Roxio settled all litigation between the two companies in a sealed agreement."

All I took away from the article was that it was more profitable for both companies to just work together, rather then work to make their lawyers rich.

This article seems kinda lite on information due to it being a sealed deal. Does anyone know anything further?

If you ask me I think this is a case of a company leveraging a large bank roll and good lawyers to further their product reach, not unlike some other large company. :-)

We need more information

[johnburton]

It's not clear from reading this story who settled with who. (Forgive me if I missed the point somewhere!)

I can't believe that Roxio would have had to settle as surely they can get this information from whoever they like. So presumably they were given some incentive to do this... Which seems a little strange give that they were having legal action taken against them.

We need more information...

that ever annoying cddb

[tuzza]

i dont know HOW it works, but i DO REMEMBER entering in HEAPS (probably a hundred or two) albums in the early days... i never got paid narthing for that - go free and public!

Re:Not the end of the matter

[SerpentMage]

I agree I do not like this concept of "sealed agreement". CDDB sued via a patent. But since it was dealt with a sealed deal nobody knows what has happened with the patent. So in other words yet another company may get threatened by CDDB. In moments like this you really begin to wonder about capitalism!!!! I love competition and freedom like the rest of us, but man this secrecy thing bugs me...

likely longterm outcome

[markj02]

In the medium term, I suspect "Gracenote" is going to switch to some proprietary audio fingerprinting technique, which is more reliable and robust than the current techniques used by FreeDB and the old CDDB. Furthermore, I suspect that there are numerous patents in the queue on doing this (never mind that it's pretty obvious). In the long term, of course, CDs will be about as important as wax cylinders.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Actually....

[Greyfox]

I expended some effort to make that list. Shouldn't I be entitled to some form of compensation if someone else uses it for profit? I entered 10 or 15 CDs into the database ages ago with the understanding that the list was (and would remain) GPL. That was the implied contract for my services, and it was effectively broken.

I think a class action suit is in order demanding that the percentage of the database built by users by me be calculated and that percent of Gracenote's total income be put aside each year and paid to us as royalties. If you're going to claim the list is IP, then my IP went into it along with thousands of others like me and we should get something for the use of that IP.

Playing Devil's Advocate...

[dave-fu]

...if you're one of the people who were screaming bloody murder because Gracenote had the _audacity_ to try and sell the album/song titles that you spent half an hour entering into their system, maybe you can understand Lars et. al. screaming bloody murder because Napster was trying to make a quick IPO selling (in a roundabout way) the albums/songs that they spent half a year writing and recording.
Food for thought or what you will.

I can't believe I'm helping them

[ImaLamer]

Ok. Go back and re-read my post.

But just in case [i've been up all night eating chocolate mints] here it goes.

My point was that Gracenote would only provide a database for disc id's.

Let's say you make a CD with a Roxio product [or plugg'd app]. Before you eject it the ID is taken from that CD. Not the serial, but the unique ID and it's furnished to Gracenote.

But how do they know what songs are on your CD? They [being whatever online emusic retailer] knows because you bought it from them. The track list is sent with the ID to Gracenote, they know what songs match that CD.

Now, here is the fun part. When you play that CD, Gracenote knows what songs you listened to and to what frequency. Whatever app you use to listen to music uploads the stats. Hell, even car radios could do this soon. Of course you get a weekly e-mail suggesting you buy this or that music.

With a format such as wma, you can listen before you buy. Buy, burn listen. Now, if you put that CD you've legally bought and burned into a CD-Rom and try to rip it, you get a nice little note: "sorry, but you can't copy this custom CD".

I've just spelled it out for the whole industry. In fact, they only need to find a distribution method. Agree on some restricting format. Come up with a numbering method. Roll out software [XP service pack 3]. And really not make a new format. If they just use Roxio burning soft, then they can come up with some sort of copy-protection method which would burn onto the disc. Considering it's against the DMCA to try to break it, they have the law behind them.

If they would like to roll out hardware later on, then they would. Maybe a CD player component that shows the information on your TV screen, such as lyrics or what not. All through the internet.

Re:And the irony of it all is...

[michaela]

I doubt that. Remember, Gracenote helped the RIAA in their efforts against Napster. That's where the "Auto-ban THESE titles" list came from, wasn't it?