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Shifting From P2P To Stream Ripping

Posted by timothy on from the too-bad-it's-such-a-pain dept.

An anonymous reader submits "As users continue to try fending off the ever more litigious music industry, some seem to have dropped P2P entirely, moving to ripping instead. While they lose some control over what they are downloading, it's a untraceable way to download music (no way for the RIAA to track users or sue). With some of the more powerful software that's been coming out recently, stream ripping has become more main-stream. Some of the more well known software packages, like StationRipper, allow users to download several thousand songs on a daily basis. And, depending on how you read the law, it's 100% legal. How will the RIAA respond? As more users move to this type of technology to avoid the P2P lawsuits, how will the music industry respond?"

6 of 577 comments (clear)

  1. Good idea but... by sH4RD · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have tried playing with a couple stream rippers before, only problem is streams tend to be real low quality...

    --
    WASTE - The Secure P2P
    1. Re:Good idea but... by pla · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ever considered streaming from high-quality stations then?

      Feel free to name a few - Either >256k/s, or >160k/s VBR (I don't know of any VBR streams, since streaming inherently tends to require CBR content)...

      Although, I've asked before, and I'll probably ask again - Why not just rip from CDs borrowed from friends (or the library)? Equally untraceable (if not more so, since although they can't tell what you do with the stream, I'd imagine it must look exceedingly strange to see someone listening to half-a-dozen stations at a time, 24/7), and you get to have 100% control over the resulting rip. Best of all possible worlds - You get the songs, you get as high of a quality as you want, you get whatever format you prefer, and not even the person you borrow the CD from needs to know what you've done (although at least for friends, most really don't care, beyond asking for some reciprocation).

      Like many /.'ers, I enjoy the use of the internet for almost all my informational needs; but sometimes, SneakerNet still offers advantages you just can't get anywhere online.

  2. My parents used to do this by eaglebtc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They would put a tape recorder up to the radio and capture the latest songs, then make copies for their friends. Sure it sounded bad but they didn't care. And neither did the RIAA, because their albums sounded better than the crappy copies the kids made, so they figured they would still want to go out and buy the latest album because of the high fidelity sound. Now that we can get digital copies they are sorely afraid. THe next move will be toward an encrypted stream, but as I always say...if you can hear it, you can rip it.

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    Homestarrunner.net -- It's Dot Com!
    1. Re:My parents used to do this by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not to mention, recording the analog out of a DirecTV box or another sound card sounds pretty clean as long as you've got good wires...

      Analog copies aren't as lossy as they used to be, especially when you're recording a source that did most of its travelling digitally until the last moment.

  3. Expect "internet radio" to disappear by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If a respectable number of P2P users switch to this, internet radio itself will be attacked. It has already been attacked, actually, but P2P was a bigger boogeyman.

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    In Soviet America the banks rob you!
  4. Suddenly I lost all sympathy for him by Daemonic · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Ratajik says he's trying to sell music from StationRipper via Amazon): "if users click the 'Buy' button they can buy the music being ripped.
    So it's not just a case of taping stuff off the radio for yourself - there's morons doing the online equivalent of setting up a stall on the high street selling mix-tapes made off the radio.

    This is where the problems lie. Stop trying to go public with services/sharing/selling. You are stealing from somebody.

    Kids copy a few tracks off the radio, or from their friend's CD, and no-one cares that much. It's what we've had for decades, and we can all live quite happilly thank-you.

    As soon as someone starts distributing en masse to the world at large - to people they don't really know - the balance tips.

    We have a balance between how much hassle/loss of quality we'll endure for free music. The record industry has a balance between how much hassle it is to track/sue people against how well organised they are, and how widely they're distributing their stuff.