The Music Man

HellSpam writes "MacNETv2 interviewed a man who is claiming the title of "King of the Pirates". The man has over 900,000 songs, a collection that rivals even the iTunes music store(!). From the article:"I spent the day with a guy who spends every free moment collecting music. So far his music collection rivals Apple's iTunes Music Store, and his goal is to own a copy of every song ever recorded. Can he do it? Maybe, but you know what they say; it's the journey not the destination.""

Comments

Wonder if ..

[torpor]

.. he's got all of ours ...

Google Cache

[sik0fewl]

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:-7B7abphgzIJ: www.macnet2.com/more.php%3Fid%3D536_0_10_0+&hl =en

Article Text

[Anonymous Coward]

From Google Cache ( http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=cache%3Ahttp%3 A%2F%2Fwww.macnet2.com%2Fmore.php%3Fid%3D536_0_10_ 0&btnG=Google+Search&meta= ):

The Music Man - King Of The Pirates Has A Goal - Own It All!

"I spent the day with a guy who spends every free moment collecting music. So far his music collection rivals Apple's iTunes Music Store, and his goal is to own a copy of every song ever recorded. Can he do it? Maybe, but you know what they say; it's the journey not the destination."

What do you say to someone who has a digital music collection that exceeds 900,000 songs? This was the question I was pondering during my long drive to interview the man who claims he is on a quest to own a copy of ever song ever recorded. What do you say? I think the only way to begin such an interview would be to ask "why?"...

When I pulled into the driveway of the King of the Pirates, an upper middle class neighborhood of stylish homes and SUV's, Infiniti's, and more Mini-Coopers than necessary, I was surprised by the normalcy of it all. His home was nothing short of spectacular, his wife a mid-30's ex-underwear model (honest!), and his two kids well groomed, apparently intelligent, and very wired. (As in technology-wise, not ADD) This is not the home I would have thought would be the enclave of someone out to pirate the hell out of the music industry. This was going to be very interesting...

Our man, let's call him Doug, greeted me with a huge hug, a broad smile on his face, drink in hand (Grand Mariner of all things), and invited me in to his den. He was absolutely thrilled to finally be able to talk to someone who was actually interested in what he was doing. Seems that 'the wife' as he calls her, was bored to tears hearing about his latest collections, or the latest Bit Torrent site he found; a treasure trove of hard to find music all ripped at 256-bits. The wife wants to know why he doesn't play more golf, like his friends. "Golf is the most boring game in the world, what I am doing is much more fun."

His Pirate Room - A MacGeek's Heaven on Earth

Doug has devoted one of the extra bedrooms (he has 7 of them) into what could only be described as The War Room. He owns three Power Mac G5's, and just added two iMac G5's. Several external 250GB firewire drives are attached to the iMacs, and sitting in the corner are a stack of at least 6 other external drives, all 300GB, brand new, boxed, and just waiting to go online.

He has two cable modems and one DSL. One cable modem is "for the family", the other dedicated to his quest. The DSL line is a backup and is sometimes used when he had discovered a new site that offers a slew of new torrents he wants to mine. The wife, and the kids are all connected to the Internet through an Airport network, with multiple Airport Express base stations scattered among the house.

All the Macs in his command and control room have JBL Creature speaker systems, some white, some blue, and a burgundy one that I have never seen before. The entire room is lit with indirect 'rope' lights, giving the room a feel of living in the Star Trek universe. There are a couple of rich soft brown leather chairs and one long, very plush, baby-butt soft leather sofa that just screams comfort. I took a seat on the sofa and never felt more pampered or more comfortable. I made a mental note that once our pets' pass on this was going to be the sofa in MY house. For all I cared this interview could go for days, once ensconced in this incredible piece of furniture I didn't want to leave...ever.

The Wife bought us a pot of coffee (Jamaican Blue Mountain), two cups, and cream and a small bowl of 'equal'. With the coffee was a plate of fresh (fresh!) Dunkin Donuts Cinnamon Sticks. The interaction between The Wife and Doug showed that these two were a happy couple. The seemed to really like each other, and that, my friends, is more rare than you might think.

Once I got through ogling the various M

Re:I wonder

[Anonymous Coward]

About 4.4 Terrabytes

Average MP3 is about 5MB

900,000 songs * 5MB = 4,500,000 MB

4,500,000 MB / 1024 MB in a gigabyte = 4394.53125 GB

Re:The hard part...

[Soporific]

Musicbrainz is a great way to fill in all the missing mp3 information and there is even an Amazon cover art grabber available if you search. I renamed about 4000 mp3's in the space of about two days doing this. ~S

Re:Journey?

[Pope]

Larry is given a margarita, and invites everyone to party. The entire crowd cheers, and Journey's "Any Way You Want It" starts playing loudly as everyone starts dancing while drinking a lot of liquor.

Lisa: Who's playing that music?
Marge: And where's all that liquor coming from?
Homer: It's a party, Marge. Doesn't have to make sense.
[a Hawaiian lei falls from out of the sky onto Homer's neck]
[Homer's handed a drink]
Homer: Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Oh, yeah!

Re:Disconnect and motivation

[cpt kangarooski]

Well, it has been the practice of the RIAA only to go after the people sharing their music with others.

That doesn't really mean anything. The law is pretty clear that downloading is infringing, and the courts have uniformly agreed whenever the issue has come before them.

Re:Disconnect and motivation

[jmcmunn]

Actually, read the article. he does not consider himself a pirate at all, and makes no claim to the title. Here's the quote from the article.

"There are people that know about what I am doing and believe in it. I just want to be an historian, a gatekeeper. Anything but a pirate. I don't consider myself a pirate."

Re:iTunes

[notthe9]

He uses Filemaker Pro.

he is obviously sharing with others

[etaluclac]

Since he claims to get a lot of music off of Bittorrent, this guy is definitely giving it to others to get a decent download speed--and at 900000 songs, plenty of others have acquired other music thanks to his "hobby."

That's the nature of the protocol--you can't take without giving back. Even if somehow downloading but not sharing the music were legal, he'd still be breaking the law.

Re:What Disconnect?

[cpt kangarooski]

Sharing an MP3 music file ... without charge: This is LEGAL unless your doing this as part of a business plan or promotion. You can have a website full of MP3's as long as it is not a business site, you are not selling ad space etc. If you can afford it, have fun.

Yeah, see, that's the part that is simply wrong, at least with regards to US law.

Copyright infringement occurs, per 17 USC 501, whenever someone violates one of the exclusive rights of the copyright holder. Two of those exclusive rights are set out in 17 USC 106.

One of them is the exclusive right to reproduce the work. Another is the exclusive right to distribute the work.

When you download a work, reproduction necessarily occurs. When you provide a work on a server for people to download, distribution occurs.

Thus, sharing anything, if it is copyrighted, and if you are not authorized by the relevant copyright holders to do so, is illegal. There are various exemptions. In the case of ordinary people sharing mp3s in an otherwise infringing manner, even if not for charge, no exemptions apply.

There is, actually, an exemption for sharing certain sound recordings and music via certain media such as analog cassette tapes. But that's not applicable to mp3s via websites and filesharing networks.

If you have a cite to a case or a statute, I'd love to see it. But you pretty certainly don't, at least not one that is valid or that you have read properly. (People invariably seem to misread 17 USC 1008 -- it annoys me. Read 1001, and read RIAA v. Diamond for what 1008 actually means, if you're going to cite it.)

Re:What Disconnect?

[Beautyon]

There is, actually, an exemption for sharing certain sound recordings and music via certain media such as analog cassette tapes. But that's not applicable to mp3s via websites and filesharing networks.

Says you. New York Fair use (now The New York Association of Copyright Stakeholders) say different:

I will quote again, for your benefit:

Recent Copyright Issues

Recent trends in the law in response to the internet and the advent of digital medium have assaulted Copyright. Among the recent laws passed which threaten Copyright is the Digital Millennium Act which Congress passed in 1998 in response to pressure from the broadcast and mass media industry in the US. Another law recently passed which attempts to destroy Copyright is the Sony Bono Copyright Extension Act.

Since Copyright can not be legal without Fair Use, both of these laws, among others making rounds on the Federal and State level, are undermining the legal and moral foundation of Copyright. New Yorkers for Fair Use is an organization which is determined to protect the validity of Copyright law by protecting Fair Use and dispelling misinformation on Copyright.

We would like you to know, first and foremost what is a legal use of Copyrighted material and what is not.

First of all: Can I own an idea, song, work of art, writing or other creative work of abstract human intellect?

No - One can not own an idea, even if you created it. You can only own a limited license called a Copyright or patent to exploit your idea for comercial purposes, or not to exploit it if you choose to. Intellectual Property is a misuse of language often used to confuse people about their rights and responsibilities. It is similar to "The Democratic Republic of China" By supporting responsible Copyright legislation, you can best protect your rights under Copyright.

1. Copying a Copyrighted work.
2. Making an archive of Copyrighted works.
3. Editing a Copyrighted work.
4. Distributing a quote from a Copyrighted work within an original work for the purposes of discussing that work.
5. Giving a copy of a Copyrighted work to a friend without a charge or other monetary consideration.
6. Using the Copyrighted work without permission of the Copyright holder in a way the Copyright holder did not initially approve of in its sale of the work to you.
7. Destroying your copy of the Copyrighted work.
8. Travelling with the Copyrighted work into a different jurisdiction.
9. Selling your copy of the Copyrighted work.

1. Making a copy of a Copyrighted work and selling it.
2. Charging for the viewing a Copyrighted work without permission of the Copyright holder.
3. Amassing a database of Copyrighted works and charging for access to that database.
4. Mixing together Copyrighted works and selling your services for reading or playing that mix.

FBI Warning on Video Tapes. The FBI Warning about copying a video tape is a lie. Owners of Copyrighted material are allowed to copy the VHS Tape for their personal use. Copying is not a crime.

Ripping CD's to MP3 files. This is LEGAL. Copying legally purchased Copyrighted material is a protected act under the Constitution.

Making copies of a Copyrighted article for a class discussion and distributing them to the class. Legal and explicit under Section 107 quoted above.

Sharing an MP3 music file, or a cassette tape of music without charge. This is LEGAL unless your doing this as part of a business plan or promotion. You can have a website full of MP3's as long as it is not a business site, you are not selling ad space etc. If you can afford it, have fun.

Copying software in a business. Illegal - Don't do it.

Copying software you own for personal use. Legal if no money is passing hands.

Sell copies of software you own and no longer use. Legal as a second sale.

Quoting bad caselaw doesnt make your case by the way.

Re:Disconnect and motivation

[wankledot]

I understand that, I was just relating it to the RIAA's efforts, which have (up to this point) targeted the sharers, not the downloaders.

Re:BitTorrent != Sharing ?

[Agret]

I think it only counts as sharing when you share a complete copy. Most of the time BitTorrent downloads are complete from many different sources at once so you never get a complete copy off any 1 person unless they are the only seed.

Re:He's a what? He's a what?

[tlunde]

I am not too familiar with copyright law, but my father told me that when you become the owner of a recording that noone else has, you gain the rights to reproduce and sell said recording.
Your father was wrong.

There have been several precedents of this.
Name one.

ps: IAAL, but this post is intended merely as public education about copyright law and does not create an attorney/client relationship with djdavetrouble, or anyone else who reads it. Please consult with an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction if you have any questions about the law as it applies to you.