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Obtaining Legal MP3s Outside of the U.S.?
frankkubiak asks: "I recently bought the new iPod with 40GB. I understand the arguments of the record industry, that I should buy the music I want to hear. Alright. So I don't want to get MP3 files by file-sharing. But here is my problem: I live outside the U.S., in Germany to be exact. iTunes only offers service to those inside the U.S. (see this related Slashdot article). I don't want a CD, vinyl record, tape or minidisc. I simply want to listen to the music. Even if I decide to buy a legacy audio CD, it is often copy-protected and won't load in my PC. So, strictly speaking, it is not even an audio-CD. Heise keeps a database of those un-CDs (German language. English speakers can use this fish-translated page). It sounds incredible, but even after hours of research on the web, I don't see a legal way to use this device with new songs. The only way I see to use this device is to buy a CD, and if I can't rip it, I'll have to [break the law and] download the MP3-file via file-sharing. I believe there are more people like me out there who want to listen to their music, without feeling guilty. Why is there no one meeting this demand? How does Slashdot feel about this?" Before you mention Napster, let's note that it has similar restrictions (see the "International Considerations" section). So where can non-U.S. internet users go to download the legal MP3s that they want?
MP3 = Terrorism.
You could buy the CD, download an MP3 from a site and play it. You own a legal copy, you're not technically stealing.
the music is owned by its copyright holder. if they don't want to offer it to you, you can't get it legally.
them's the ropes, and our just desserts for allowing the hegemony of major labels to monopolise music for so long.
MORTAR COMBAT!
Is it illegal to download [and not share] the mp3's of an album if you own that album?
I have the same issue living in Canada, Puretracks has a small selection, but I haven't found anything I want there yet, and my discman only plays MP3s not WMV.
I gave up and resorted to buying CDs, ripping them, then burning them. Most CD ripping software seems to be capable of working around the 'copy protection' on the CDs I have had experiance with. Its horrible because I live in tiny student housing and generally end up leaving the jewel cases and discs at my parents to save space and clutter.
The music industry's grim determination to stop me from listening to music I have paid for has yet to cease amazing me.
paul reinheimer
... wonders why people are drawn to illegal file sharing...
Slashdot has feelings? Next I am expected to give her flowers, say nice things and nibble her ear...
Beings aspergers AND pulling chicks... I enjoy the challenge!
Situations like this is why you shouldn't feel guilty about downloading "illegal" music.
The only way I see to use this device is to buy a CD, and if I can't rip it
Did they create a WORKING copy protection scheme yet? i.e. one you can't circumvent by shift key or just by using the CD under Linux???
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
It seems like there's hardly a mode of copy protection that hasn't been broken - whether via sharpie or shift key, there's usually a way around these things.
Last I checked, recording songs that are played off the radio is still fair use. Just hook any headset radio to the Line-in port of your sound card...
You get them at http://opsound.org !
Licenced under Creative Commons licence...
To be honest, I would love to see a case where someone downloaded MP3s for CDs they owned end up in a non-american court (and hense free from the majority of direct RIAA lobying). Once you own the CD, fair use should give you the right to listening to it on your PC, discman, or other portable electronics, and as such you should be able to legally use whatever means are at your disposal.
Hopefully the precedent setting case would come down on the side of the consumet.
paul reinheimer
i get a bit tired of listenting to all the holier than thou itunes mess Ya just gotta learn to quit caring and savor the current internet for all you can....... usem while ya gottem.
The fine folks over at Allofmp3.com will sell you MP3s for a wide variety of artists. They don't seem to care what country your're in. As far as being legit, they say that they're registered with the Russian copyright authority and that they're authorized to sell what they're offering. I haven't heard about any independant verification of that, though.
Any decent CD ROM drive, paired with one of very many good ripper applications, can rip the CD regardless of any copy protection scheme. Just get yourself a good ripper and enjoy your music. The music labels want you to believe their copy protection schemes are more than just FUD, but they're not. They're useless and easily cirumvented by anyone willing to spend just a little time getting their environment optimized.
muzik.agnula.org All of it is Creative Commons licensed music.
I use mp3search.ru. They have a deal with the Russian equivalent of the RIAA, so these downloads SHOULD be legal where ever you are. They tend to have the CDs we in the US pay more for because there "imports". Lots of B side selections and remixes. Downloads are around 10 cents a song.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Any answer there is to this question will be at the best unobvious and at the worst massively convoluted. If the average consumer wants to use their digital technology effectively, they have no choice but to break the law. The lack of insight that has brought about this situation is the primary reason that the music industry is seeing such a massive downturn: it's the financial results of a cultural backlash against narrow-minded profiteering.
I seriously wonder what they would say.
You have a device and nothing to fill it with. You ask them for songs and they tell you...what? Encourage you to break the law?
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
they don't restrict your use, will sell to people outside of the U.S. and have a decent selection of non-U.S. artists. Of course, if you are looking for Bravo Charts or something from the Dome you are most likely SOL. If you are more into the types of music on the soundtrack to Herr Lehmann, you should feel right at home.
Some record companies have no problem with it.
Audio Luncbox also allows you to have unrestricted mp3 or aac. Enjoy!
Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
The mentioned magazine c't actually has a test of like 8 or 10 legal online music stores which are accessible from within Germany in its current issue..
100% legal MP3s, but you'd better like the music on the Warp (as it only sells that label's catalogue).
Warp Records entire catalog, including rare and out-of-print, and vinyl-only stuff available at Bleep.com.
Good quality VBR, and whole-song preview too.
y
Granted, it doesn't have Britney Spears or Moby, but you may be surprised at what you can find there.
Ok....so nobody is meeting this demand. I have two suggestions. Either try to start such a service that DOES meet those demands, and hopefully profit off it while you get your music fix, or just go ahead and break some laws. How can you feel guilty if they offer you no legal option for getting your music this way? You really have no alternative, so there is no reason to feel guilty, especially after you have decided you want to do things legally, and they have failed to provide you with a way to do so.
Before I get people giving me arguments about things like "well, I wanted them to give me a way to smoke pot legally, but they failed to provide me a way to do so", I would just like to state that this isn't an issue about whether you can use something or not, this is a format issue and a license issue, which is quite different.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
I don't know about germany but in holland it is a legal right to make a copy. Copy protection denies that right so again it is the music industry that is acting against the law.
So why should I feel guilty when I download music?
Asnswer I don't. Poor musicians starving to death? Awh, best artists in history were poor. I am doing art a favor. I didn't see music artist protest when changing technology made miners unemployed or when thousands of factory workers lost their jobs to robots.
For years people have been making suggestions of how the music industry could easily sell its entire catalog without the expense of keeping cd's in stock by burning on demand. They didn't want it. Voting with your wallet is the only thing that works. Any who buy copyrighted cd's and then jump through hoops to get it to work on their player are pawns. You are sending the message that the current business model is fine with you.
Since in holland you pay a tax on dvd's and cassetes anyway that goes to the music industry I see that as my payment. No more wrong then them getting money for my linux install cd's.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
One of my favorite sites is Epitonic.com. I've found so many great artists there...
The Philosophy of Liberty | lewrockwell.com
Yes, it's fair use, but the SNR of normal FM transmissions is less than 50 ...
The Raven
Simple - allofmp3.com - they're located in Russia, where the royalty laws for downloading music work similarly to those for radio airplay in North America. Because of this, they are able to offer a HUGE selection of music without having to hammer out deals with the major labels.
How much does all this cost? How about $0.01 US/megabyte downloaded? What if I told you that the vast majority of their catalogue was available in high quality formats, that you can encode to your file format of choice (including LAME with --alt-presets, or OGG)? Would that sweeten the deal?
Frankly, I don't know why these guys havn't taken off in North America, aside from a lack of publicity. I suppose there is some fear of giving your credit card to a Russian company, but their processor is highly reputable, and they now also accept PayPal.
Here's some reviews and FAQs about their setup and its legitimacy:
http://www.techimo.com/newsapp/i9599.html
http://www.techimo.com/newsapp/i9599.html
Looks like Apple's itunes won't be available in Europe anytime soon (apparently Napster seems to want to come back in Europe though).
>> Why do people like iTunes and Napster restrict
>> service like that?
Do you think for a moment that either of these companies wouldn't jump in to an otherwise untapped market for their product if they could?
Both companies have publically acknowledged they're fighting to launch in Europe
More Info!
I live in the U.S. and I sell gift certificates to the iTunes Music Store at a small premium. Please e-mail me at sales at rossonwebs dot com if you're interested. Most of my sales come from European countries, and the gift certificates work like a charm on iTunes. It's not a TOS violation either, believe me, I have checked and rechecked.
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If it wasn't for services like Soulseek and Suprnova I probably wouldn't know half of the good music I know now. My policy is to download the music, evaluate it, and buy it if it's something I want to keep. Since the music I listen to rarely get any air time on the radio, I don't have much choice.. short of blindly wasting money on random CD's. And no, I don't believe that 30 second 32kbps/22khz mp3 previews does music any justice.
So well, it sucks to break the law, but as long as you can avoid getting prosecuted I believe the moral question is up to yourself: "Is what I'm doing wrong?". I mean, in my case the record industry is actually getting more money from me because I've got access to fileshare networks.
Eventually, the record industry will have to move with the flow.. I believe we'll see many more "iTunes sites" in the future.
European music and artists : independent (mp3).
ecompil : universal (wma)
a cool label
epitonic : good independent site (mp3)
This is just a selection from google
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russel
The RIAA lawsuits were against heavy *uploaders*. The cost of downloading a song is already established -- $0.99 at iTunes, $1--$2 if you buy a CD and rip it yourself. Downloading isn't necesarily illegal (fair use allows you to copy from someone else, not make a copy for someone else).
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Considering the fact that MP3 compression is lossy and you can't get the original data back, how did they compare checksums? Of course the data is going to be different.
Sounds like BS to me. }:)
It's in Spain, it's legal and their site is both in English and in Spanish: Weblisten.
Futhermore, most CD drives still have the headphone port in the front and an audio wire in the back that can output CD audio. That'll let you have the recording start at the exact same time as the track playback...
I mean.. wasting all that money on a iPod, only to figure out you don't have any method of inputting songs into it? just do what everyone else does.. rip the CD, and boycott people who use copy protection.
No I don't remember.
That sounds bogus, if ship ripped MP3's you can't check checksums. MP3 is a lossy format.
Doesn't mean they can't figure out in some manner, not via checksums.
Remember the little old lady that the RIAA busted? She claimed she owned all the music on CD already so it didn't matter if she downloaded all the music off the net? RIAA checked the checksums of the files vs her CDs and they were different.
Bullshit. Checksums would never survive compression.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
In these situations I always ask myself What Would Jesus Do?
I think he would buy the the cd, rip it with audio hijack, and then load them up onto his iPod.
iRATE gets you free & legal mp3s without disriminating in regards to your location in the world. It also promotes the little guys and tries to save the world from sucky radio.
They're primarily a WMP9 shop, but I believe at least some of the resellers use mp3's, which should work on your ipod.
iTunes itself is coming to europe, in theory the first half of this year; but it's anyone's guess as to when they'll actually launch.
Personally speaking, I prefer to still buy CD's, as I get to choose the rip quality (high quality ogg's for my PC, 128vbr mp3 for my flash mp3 player).
I just refuse to buy the corrupt disks, and stick to the smaller labels, especially the indie's. If you do want to import (cheap) CD's, I can personally recommend CDBaby for non-label music, and cd-wow are insanely cheap for more well known artists.
Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
They ran checksums on the MP3 files, not the audio CD. MP3 compression is lossy and files will be different depending on encoder and options, but once ripped the MP3 files that are traded will be identical byte for byte. There's not that many different rips of the same song being traded so the RIAA has SHA or MD5 sums of the song files being traded online. If the woman's files were identical to the ones on Kazaa, then she must have downloaded them from Kazaa or (less likely) ripped them from her CD with the exact same encoder, bitrate and options as the person who first uploaded it.
Studio K7 has some limited offerings in MP3 as well.
I think both sell internationally - Warp is in the UK and K7 is in Germany.
Other than looking for non-RIAA music CDs, there are sites with legally downloadable music. It's not the pop hits of the day, but sites like Epitonic.com have great music that you can download in MP3 form legally. Google can help you find lots more sites if that's not to your liking; these are just the ones I have bookmarked.
"You can never have too many elephants on your team."
There is a difference between ethics and legality. You cannot legally use MP3s in your country. You've been conditioned to think of copyright as "intellectual property," rather than a social contract between creator of content and the consumer, which associates concepts like stealing and piracy with what is, in the end, not theft but copyright violation. This brings with it the feeling of guilt. You've also been conditioned, probably by the German society, that laws were meant to be followed and that ethical people follow laws.
The reality is quite different. Laws are, at best, an attempt to codify and enforce ethics by committee. The committee is usually right, but does, on occasion, make errors. In those cases, there is sometimes no compelling reason to follow the laws. Worse, as in the case of Eastern Europe under Communism, the committee maybe corrupt, in which case, the ethical thing to do is often civil disobedience, and intentionally breaking laws. To me, this feels like one of those cases.
You should strive to follow ethics, not laws. I would argue that there is a compelling ethical argument not to give money to record companies, so they can better buy off governments to pass acts like the DMCA mandating DRM, and destroy your right to write free software capable of interacting with the mainstream world (you cannot, right now, write free legal DVD players, or players for DRMed CDs, even if they have zero uses for copying content). If this is allowed to continue, in short time, GNU/Linux computers will no longer be able to legally access music and video, followed by books and electronic texts, and eventually, mainstream documents. Once this happens, GNU/Linux and free software will have been effectively legally banned from any sort of desktop use (and quite possibly, eventually, server use).
I would sidestep the issue of benefiting personally from illegal action by making sure you do not benefit. Donate the money you would have spent on CDs to either the artists, or organizations like the FSF, the EFF and similar. Make sure you donate at least as much as you have in illegal content. Then, gather the content illegally, and use it as you see fit. I believe this is the second most ethical course of action (the most ethical being that you only boycott all mainstream music, and listen only to independent labels uninvolved in the push for DRM).
From the introduction:
In particular, you should be listening to iRATE radio. It downloads and plays those legal MP3s that the artists have on their websites, so you don't have to go hunting for them. If you've already tried out iRATE, note that version 0.3 was just released, so get the update if you don't already have it.Request your free CD of my piano music.
As on La Repubblica.it (use the fish if necessary) today, the EU Parliament approved a proposal for regulating P2P stating that acts committed in good faith by consumers - such as downloading music from Internet for personal use - won't be prosecuted. It still has to go through the EU Council, but it's a good start...
No copyright owner or agent for same has ever sued an individual in Australia for making any kind of copy for personal use. The legislation has never been tested in court. It may well fail against Common Law fair use rights.
The fact that it has never been tested must give you some idea of the Australian music and film industries' level of confidence that it would be upheld. As long as they never test it, they can continue to claim that it is illegal to tape shows off the TV, rip CDs to MP3, etc, etc.
Don't believe everything the Copyright Council says.
Politas
what did the 5 fingers say to the face? SLAP!! i'm rick james...bitch!
Like you, I once (recently) set out on this Quixotic quest to discover a set of self-consistent rules within society, whereby one can function adequately. My conclusion that, while "society" says one thing, in reality it conspires to produce "law-breakers". Societies do not care so much about producing law-abiding citizens, their primary purpose is to produce law-breakers, who they will then punish.
Since "society" cannot realize this about itself, it often leaves most criminals unpunished. Therefore it is better to be a criminal.
You'll go insane the other way.
if you have friends in the US, you could ask them to purchase cards - or an allowance - for you. This is quite possibly what the fellow suggesting you email him will offer to do. I should think it's legal - there's no law I know of preventing me from buying a CD and sending it to you.
Perhaps not a solution for the original post, but some reading this thread may be interested in RipDigital. You mail them your collection of CDs and they mail back your CDs along with ripped MP3s on a data DVD they burn for you...
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
Don't support copyright holders who want you to consume under restricted circumstances. There is plenty of free music out there.
For those interested in obtaining legal copies live music by bands that support free trade of live music, check out www.etree.org. The traders there use the SHN format (lossless), and you can frequently get any show you want for free (either via FTP or sending a blank disc and a self addressed stamped envelope - B&P) if you ask nicely. For personal use, you are allowed to transcode the SHN o MP3, but please don't trade any shows in MP3 format (and likewise, don't turn an MP3 show into a SHN).
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
Just put the CD into your normal CD player (not your computer)
Plug your players output into your computers input.
Record.
Granted, you loose some quality, you loose the convenient automatic retrievel of the song-titles, you may have to seperate songs by hand and ripping is only at single speed.
Convenient? Sure not! But it works. Always.
And it should be legal in Germany.
While it is illegal to circumvent a copy-protection, I would argue that you play the CD on a device that can play it and record it on a device that can record it, so you're not circumventing anything.
I have discovered a truly remarkable proof for my post which this sig is too small to contain.
You may want to seriously consider alternatives like magnatune.com and epitonic.com. There is a great deal of quality, free music. In my opinion, anything with DRM is not worth owning anyway. Seriously.
harmonious design
Both tracks are available for free download. Furthermore, The Bomb's first track, Running Scared is released under the new Fitehouse General Public Music License, which goes further than the Creative Commons or EFF Open Audio Licenses in that it requires the release of the studio master tracks from which a piece of music is composed: also on The Bomb's download piece are uncompressed WAV files with the raw, unmixed audio of each of the instrumental and vocal parts.
So if you like, you could record yourself singing and mix it with the other tracks from Running Scared.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
Other countries have a similar law in place, you should check it out.
Audio Lunchbox, an indie-only digital music store has made their entire catalog of music available globally. Cross-platform (Linux, PC and Mac compatible), No DRM, the option to choose either Ogg Vorbis (Q6) or high-quality MP3 (192 kbps VBR) and an excellent selection of music (Sasha, Death Cab for Cutie, Mozart and even Jimi Hendrix) is worth checking out. To quote from the About section: 'Audio Lunchbox was founded in April 2003 by 4 individuals with a common vision: to increase exposure and availability of great independent music.'
But I think it's obvious. They don't want your business. Mine either. So I don't buy from them. I concentrate on dealing with more ethical companies that demonstrate that they do want my business. To keep buying from the music cartel when in your position does not make you a consumer or even a fan. It makes you an abused junky.
then she must have downloaded them from Kazaa or (less likely) ripped them from her CD with the exact same encoder, bitrate and options
less likely? I use my computer as my stereo, and transfer my music from CD to it. To do this I just pop in the CD, it looks up the name for me, and I press one button to encode the albumn.
bitrate... options... all default.
Now if Kazaa has a copy of the exact same song, with the exact same title and the exact same MD5 sum, Is it really that obvious that I must have downloaded it from them.
By your logic, me admitting that, "No, I encoded this file from my CD", would imply that I must have been the one to place it on Kazza... because what are the odds that someone choose the exact same encoder, bitrate, options and even named it the same name.
I hate to give a touchy-feely answer to a serious question, but it also involves a bit of human engineering. The Record was created at the turn of the century to reproduce classical recordings. From the point that music was recorded it was recorded with the intent of being played back on vinyl. Horns, violins, etc were used to tune the recording system and the recording system was used to tune the records that came out. Elvis still sounds better on vinyl.
Now, I while I can't say that modern music sounds terrible on a record (I have a disk here by Kosheen that would attest to that), most of the poppy, clippy... sharp modern recordings sound better on CD. They were recorded with CD's in mind, tuned for CD's, and released on CD. I can't guarentee that Janet sounds better on CD, but most of the modern, non-jazz or instrumental recordings I have heard recently sound much better on disk. Wayne Shorter seems better on Vinyl, but he makes for a more classical sound.
There another touchy-feely answer for you. Recordings sound best on the medium that they were styled, mixed, and recorded for, because they have been optimized for the strengths and weaknesses of that medium.
The ______ Agenda
All of the "copy protected" CDs that I ever bought were perfectly readable by iTunes, and are now nicely stored in MP3 format on my iPod.
Oh, maybe this is because I have a Mac :-)
Audio CDs ignore a lot of the error-correction you'd have on a data CD, so just ripping it twice on the same machine (to .wav files or something else lossless) may very likely produce different checksums.
Scratch repair employed by CDex/cdparanoia and suchlike tends to mangle small differences before you even get round to encoding anything.
...they offer the Bleep Music Store. All files are high-quality (VBR with the settings cranked up) MP3s, unprotected -- they *gasp* treat you like a customer instead of a serf. Also you can preview tracks -- not just 30 seconds of a track, but all of it (albeit in 30 second chunks, so you can't just rip the whole track to a .wav file before buying). Also there's Magnatune (tagline: "We are not evil" ;-} ). Warp have the advantage of 'famous names' though, like Aphex Twin or LFO.