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VLC 1.1 Forced To Drop Shoutcast Due To AOL Anti-OSS Provision
The folks over at VideoLAN are in the process of releasing version 1.1.0 of VLC, and one of the major changes is the removal of SHOUTcast, a media-streaming module from AOL-owned Nullsoft. "During the last year, the VLC developers have received several injunctions by e-mail from employees at AOL, asking us to either comply to a license not compatible with free software or remove the SHOUTcast capability in VLC." Within the license is a clause prohibiting the distribution of SHOUTcast with any product whose own license requires that it be "disclosed or distributed in source code form," "licensed for the purpose of making derivative works," or "redistributable at no charge." The license would also force VideoLAN to bundle Nullsoft adware with VLC. Update: 06/22 00:52 GMT by H : The 1.1 release is ready from their site; you can also read up on the release information.
to say fuck you AOL. Seriously quit being a dick.
Hold up, wait a minute, let me put some pimpin in it
You'd think those guys would seize any opportunity to stay relevant. It's one thing to shoot yourself in the foot, another to do it when you're inches from death.
Dislike the Electoral College? Lobby your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say...
AOL wants to flex what little muscle it has left and try to have an impact on something? KMA AOL, VLC is going to cast your SHOUTcast aside. No one will miss it, and more importantly, no one will miss AOL when it fades off into the sunset.
I ask out of genuine curiosity -- if anyone has a compelling reason why any attention should be paid to AOL, please explain.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Doesn't VLC already come with DeCSS inside to decode DVD video? Isn't DeCSS "illegal software" ? ... so why does that make this module any different? Can't they just ignore the injunction and keep going?
Promise I'm not trolling, just confused, or perhaps not understanding the situation.
Wow, I didn't know AOL developed software. I thought they were just a Frisbee manufacturer.
Speaking of which I really miss getting the free sample Frisbees from them every month. Did they go bankrupt or something?
Reverse engineering and design for interoperability is legal in the US. Unless there is an active patent or AOL's code is incorporated into VLC they don't have a leg to stand on and are just engaging in bully tactics. Considering that this is AOL I'm not surprised that they're likely to shift to the SCO business model and squeeze all they can from the fumes of their diminished empire.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
I highly doubt VideoLAN will ever approve increasing the download size from 17MB to 100MB. This would fail on bandwidth provisions alone.
"Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion." ~General Norman Schwarzkopf
"When sold or distributed to End Users, the Integrated Product shall not [...] (c) incorporate any Publically Available Software, in whole or in part, in a manner that may subject SHOUTcast Radio or the SHOUTcast Radio Materials, in whole or in part, to all or part of the license obligations of any Publically Available Software. As used herein, the term "Publicly Available Software" means any software that contains, or is derived in any manner (in whole or in part) from, any software that is distributed as free software, open source software or similar licensing or distribution models; and that requires as a condition of use, modification or distribution that such software or other software incorporated into, derived from or distributed with such software: (1) be disclosed or distributed in source code form; (2) be licensed for the purpose of making derivative works; or (3) be redistributable at no charge." (Emphasis mine)
This is a standard provision that is part of any license agreement for commercial software, and all it says is that you can't distribute the software in a way that makes it subject to the GFDL or some other Free license.
I'm not sure what the real reason is, but the OSS provision isn't it.
And nothing of value was lost.
was lost
Whats next, Firefox won't be allowed to visit the shoutcast directory.
I foresee an Internet where in order to be legally allowed to browse a website you must comply with their terms and install software at the sites choosing.
Seriously, is anyone using this? With the horrible memories I have of AOL I would not use anything they made and I would think most people feel similarly.
"I see undead people" Warcraft III - Necromancer
DISCLAIMER: If you are an employee of AOL you are not authorized to read the following comment.
How does XBMC get away with SHOUTcast support then? Or should I be asking this question?
really whips the llama's ass
SHOUTcast is just a bad copy of icecast. Keep using icecast for your audio and video streaming and do not accept lesser, closed source imitations.
I do hope that the specific VLC developers involved with the shoutcast fiasco get the drubbing they deserve, if for no other reason than as an example for others and as payment for the trouble they've caused the rest of the project. It's 2010, closed source does not belong on the net and FOSS developers have no business undercutting FOSS projects.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
seriously, who ?
As an iPhone developer, I can tell you the majority of streaming radio apps on mobile phones are listening to Shoutcast servers. That's where most of the money lies for AOL/Nullsoft in Shoutcast. The protocol is very simple and similar to HTTP so the iPhone OS supports it (sort of) out of the box, and some of the more advanced features (like in-stream song names) can be taken advantage of by manipulating the HTTP headers.
organize it in such a way that any user can download, compile and add the software as an add-on himself.
No they didn't. AOL employees do not have the power to issue injunctions. They may have received some sort of "cease and desist" letters, but those have no force of law. The VLC developers need to consult an attorney. Are they using AOL-copyrighted code? If so, why?
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Nothing of value was lost.
VLC will continue to be the swiss army knife media player, and AOL will continue to lose customers to their horrible business practices.
that's like two evils in one package! Way to go, man.
Shoutcast predates icecast. And, in any case, this appears to have been a Shoutcast directory client, not a media server.
-mkb
You didn't get 'several email injunctions from AOL employees'. A judge puts an injunction into place. AOL asked you to stop. It may have lead to an injunction at some point had you told them to piss off, but you complied, and thats where it ended.
The 'license issue' you quoted also basically says 'if your software license imposes restrictions that are anti-closed source software, then we don't want to play with you.' This is pretty much identical to the point of GPL but in the other direction. Same stupid constraint, you're just pointing it out like you license is different than there. Same rule, just used by the other side. Get used to it, they are just doing to you what you want to do to them, you have nothing to bitch about here.
The toolbar bundling issue is just another retarded constraint, but GPL (in my opinion) is full of retarded constraints that make it less than open by my definition. I wouldn't do it either if it were me, but thats what happens when you want to use someone elses stuff, you have to play nice with them.
Yes, I'm going to be marked as a troll, but really this is just as much a GPL being anti-closed source as it is AOL being anti-open source. Both sides are doing the same retarded thing, using a license the other one doesn't like and then blaming it on the other person.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Make it a separately installed "plug-in". What's the problem? Do the same with any other module of questionable legality.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I remember something about junk mail in the form of floppy's and CD's but its all so blurry. AOL used to sell something didn't they? well it escapes me. At least they found a way to make themselves even less relevant. I almost thought it couldn't be done
anybody can make an injunction (in the dictionary sense) - it's just that the sheriff enforces the ones that judges make (in the legal dictionary sense)
You do realize if you took 'closed source' out of the Internet, right this instant, you'd not be able to communicate outside of your own home, let alone with the rest of the world.
When you start running OSS based CMTS or DSLAMS and OSS based core routers, THEN come talk about how it has no place on the net. OSS is not the end all be all of software on the planet and is generally eclipsed by closed source software in every arena on the planet except for a select few where inroads have been made.
You wouldn't like the Internet if there was no closed source software on it, as it wouldn't exist, and neither would most of the OSS stuff you love so much which exists because of the Internet and the code that powers it.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
I have an older version of VLC already installed. My first thought was "keep the old version so not to give up a function". Then I realized that I never listen to shoutcast, and likely never will. So why bother to even worry about it? If AOL wants to further isolate themselves from the rest of the community because of concern that someone might be spared from some of their obnoxious ads, by all means let them. Too bad that no one who actually understands the issue will be there the day that AOL execs sit around the conference table and try to understand why no one listens to shoutcast and it doesn't get the "buzz" the other forms of media do.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
How is Shoutcast a copy of Icecast, when Shoutcast came first? Once upon a time Nullsoft wasn't owned by AOL, and produced something called Winamp...
Just migrate to Subsonic. Much better imnsho.
signatures are for fools with hands
Lots of people who are stuck with their email addresses in AOL. They don't want to change because they are afraid to lose business (the same a people don't like to change their mobile numbers). I wonder; the EU might make email address portability mandatory if we start shouting loud enough about this. Would you like that AOL? Do you really want to annoy us?
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
It's 2010, closed source does not belong on the net
Well then you better get off the train because plenty of the net will never stop using closed source software.
AOL still exists.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Perhaps he meant the "web" not the internet itself. Closed-source software doesn't belong.
You also wouldn't like the internet without open-source software, plenty of it runs various parts of the internet, including DNS.
The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.
I wonder; the EU might make email address portability mandatory if we start shouting loud enough about this. Would you like that AOL? Do you really want to annoy us?
Is this really feasible?
Software and stuff uses the host part of the address to know where to send it, would there have to be a kind of secondary DNS system for email addresses or would it just be made mandatory that all existing servers are modified to do a kind of transparent forwarding.
Also if some server shut down then that would cause a lot of problems
It seems that AOL has laid out a brilliant path for every internet company: To be successful, just do the opposite of every single thing AOL does.
That seems wrong on both accounts, at least according to wikipedia which states that icecast was developed in 1998 whereas SHOUTcast was developed in 1999. Furthermore icecast is both a sevrer and client not some directory client for SHOUTcast.
I've operated a media distribution system (mostly video ppv) for about a decade. About 7 years ago, I ended up blocking the AOL browser completely. It was a worthless piece of shit that caused 50% of our customer service issues. Coupled with their idiotic "no refresh for 30 days" DNS servers (which means any time you moved a website to a new IP, it "vanished" for a month for all AOLosers) and their proxy servers that made tracking large-scale credit card fraud extremely difficult, it literally cost us money to even have AOLosers in the customer base. I was in the process of compiling a list of AOL IP ranges and had plans to block them completely when they finally rolled over and died in the dial-up market. Almost overnight, they became 99% irrelevant and my life got so much easier, I was able to start taking regular vacations.
In summation, GO TO HELL, AOL! You're nothing but a festering boil on the ass of the internet and your rotting corpse needs to be dumped into an active volcano.
Nothing worthwhile ever happens before noon
Having AOL say "you can't bundle our stuff" is right up there with Real Media saying the same thing. Who the f* cares? I mean really. Good bye, good riddance.
You also wouldn't like the internet without open-source software, plenty of it runs various parts of the internet, including DNS.
But the argument "open-source doesn't belong on the web" was never made. So what's your point again?
Most of the "closed source" stuff is based on "ripped off" FreeBSD. Juniper routers; MPLS switches most of the ATM core etc. etc. If there was no closed source then we'd have a chance that these things were running an OS their owners could audit. The fact that the BSD developers supported this happening is not to their credit.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
You know what, if I had moderating powers I would consistently mod down posts with these kind of sentences.
(I would have agreed with the rest of your post though, had I actually read it)
I thought that shit pile was dead years ago?!? They have paying customers? Who the fuck are these people that are still even pulling a paycheck?
I thought they were off chilling with the altavista people... drinking... Boonesfarm under a bridge in some rust belt city.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
I know this was meant to be funny (so, "ha ha"), but in fact the latest versions of OSS audio are doing very well and perform far superior to the offal that calls itself pulseaudio.
Amarok dropped Shoutcast support in version 2.2 (October 2009) because of this.
I thought you guys here at Slashdot were so big on adhering to licenses? Shouting loudly when somebody uses GPL code illegally and even when they use it legally but in a way you don't like (Tivo). It is pretty hypocrite to then whine about a commercial software company who protects their license...
Was VLC incorporating code supplied by AOL under a copyright licence or is AOL trying to overextend copyright to cover any implementation? I did RTFA but I'm none the wiser. Unfortunately, the licence PDF is now a 404 page.
Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
received several injunctions by e-mail from employees at AOL? What does this even mean? AOL employees are now judges?
I'm not talking about icecast as a directory client. I'm talking about the module that was removed from VLC. Read the press release from VideoLAN:
Listening to Shoutcast or icecast streams is done by many projects. I doubt you'd need a license from Nullsoft to do so.
-mkb
Seriously AOL, are you that determined to drive every last customer away?
I run a radio site that uses shoutcast & WMA streaming, I typically have 2-4 WMA & 15-20 shoutcast viewers, I will have to put up a poll to see what software is most used.
okay. i'm giving in. i'm flipping the bird. btw, what is shoutcast?
-- and if life has failed you leave the cross you're nailed to
IANAL, but I'm fairly sure that support of a protocol can't be copyrighted (though a protocol itself might), so I would assume VLC was using actual nullsoft code. They could always just write support for it from scratch...But then, why bother for an insignificant feature that so few people even use.
It's kinda sad, though, IMHO. I was never a big fan of AOL, but they were one of the early pioneers. Now, they're just kind of sad.
They can't keep subscribers, and of the few products they do have, they alienate the people who would use them??? I mean, does the term "assisted suicide" apply to a company?
Computer Science is Applied Philosophy
Whatever pays the bills. Not everyone can invent iFart or iVuvuzela.
OSS4 is difficult to get installed and configured - but yes, the results are far superior to ALSA and/or Pulse. The good people at OSS really need to develop a slick, smooth script that will remove ALSA and install OSS4 reliably. Those people who are migrating to Linux from Windows simply are not going to go to all the trouble necessary at this point in time to get it installed. Worse, the most popular Linux distro around offers zero support for OSS4. Talk about a minefield!
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Hi VideoLAN Folks, The AGPL license (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html) is specifically designed for your situation. It is compatible with Shoutcast's terms because it is not "contagious" (unlike GPL) when you use Shoutcast as a service. You should release all or part of VideoLAN under the AGPL. Does that make sense to you?
It's only difficult on Linux. FreeBSD and Solaris both ship with an OSS 4 implementation out of the box. If you want decent working sound, you can use pretty much any UNIX-like system except Linux.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
It seems Shoutcast is important to many people. At least half a million according to some of the info in the article and its source. It also seems that many of the folks here seem to think Shoutcast is a trivial piece of work that costs nothing to operate and AOL should allow people to use it for free. AOL disagrees. That is their right. They own Shoutcast. If this is a problem for some of you, then create your own directory of internet radio stations. And create the protocol for it to be transmitted with. And pay for hosting the servers that the directory will reside on. And give all of it away for free. Or donate the money to pay for the services and the salaries to create and maintain it so that it can happen. Seems a lot of people think free software means being able to spend other people's money, and fork other people's code. To me it seems that a lot of the time, free software means working for free due to ones who like to spend other's money and fork other's code. Not all software supports service contracts like MySQL.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Oh no. Now look what you've done. You have me thinking that maybe I should install FreeBSD when I get this other Opteron assembled with all the rest of the stuff laying around. You proselytizer!
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I mean seriously, Why do companies keep this stupid shit up? How many times do we have to keep repeating this? (Yes, I was just listening to Richard Stallman http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=bfb72#p/u/41/iqdGp-lI44Y ) How can we make it clear to companies (I'm talking to you AOL) that we will not support this kind of stupidity any more?
Your Moon, Your Mission, Get involved! http://www.openluna.org
...cause you've just made me stop listening to all my shoutcast streams. I'm sure the artists will appreciate that.
There is already "email address portability": It's called "buying and using your own domain name". You can change providers as much as you want and keep your email address! I'm a little suspicious of any business (especially a tech business) using an ISP email address (or worse hotmail/gmail/yahoo). I have even had personal domain names for over 10 years now.
--
no sig for you. come back one year.
Hmm I could have sworn that I have seen several companies who are doing exactly that. Offering open source routing platforms to take on Cisco and other high end routers.
Vyatta http://www.vyatta.com/
XORP http://www.xorp.org/
Plus there was Alteon who was bought out by Nortel that was doing a lot of open source stuff. I worked with them before they got bought out. I also know of a few other companies around the same period who were open sourcing the software that ran on top of their hardware as well.
You might be surprised at how much stuff out there is open source because they are selling you the custom hardware (ASICs/whatever) not the software that runs on top of it.
We have portable email addresses -- just buy a domain name and setup email hosting. You can buy such services for less than $20/year without any technical expertise, which should not be a significant expense for anyone who cares about keeping their email address indefinitely.
Is it just SHOUTcast directory listing that they don't integrate with anymore?
And if so, why? How can you set distribution license on software that only uses your service ?
or are they using some code from AOL/Nullsoft, in which case why didn't they just rewrite it ?
I'm sorry, but am I the only one lost here?
Hi all. We were disappointed to see VLC's announcement today that they were removing access to the SHOUTcast service in VLC. While the SHOUTcast service is proprietary, SHOUTcast has always supported open source development since its birth in 1999 and we will continue to do so in the future. The SHOUTcast API terms of service allow the SHOUTcast API to be incorporated into open source software applications via SHOUTcast API partner program so long as the terms of such open source software do not subject SHOUTcast Radio or the SHOUTcast service to the open source terms. VLC's comment that the SHOUTcast Toolbar is spyware is not accurate. The SHOUTcast Toolbar is not spyware. The SHOUTcast toolbar may only be downloaded by a user upon their prior consent. We will be reaching out directly to VLC to clear up any confusion that exists about this situation.
Shoutcast isn't any special protocol. It's smoke and mirrors... it's really just http. Identify the protocol as penis:// or whatever you want, but it's still just http:///
The mp3 file format lends itself to "streaming" because it is continuous data. Click a link to play an mp3 file with playback starting immediately and you are streaming it. A "shoutcast" radio station is just mp3 data. Write it to disk as it's streaming and you have an mp3 file.
A web site directory that uses javascript to launch a player is really all there is to it. They don't host the "radio stations" or anything.
AOL can kiss the very middle of my ass.
I have it; you have it; we have it.
But AOL users who stuck with their AOL address don't have it
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
You need to keep a forwarding address table and do that even for inactive subscribers. Not exactly difficult.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
No, it's not. GP's talking bollocks. If people want portability they should get their own domains, possibly a .name. Changing DNS to fit that purpose is insane.
Dilbert RSS feed
Wow, seems like not so many people know:
http://dir.xiph.org/index.php
Icecast has been around a long, long time. I've been running a stream off it since 1999 (!!).
Check it out if you like Bay Area punk: http://gilman.duckpond.net/
Sucks to be them? Who cares. AOL users are nubs anyway.
Thank god they removed this crappy component from VLC. Now not only is it faster to compile, but much less bloat and removes one component from accessing the net. This should have been done years ago, whos great idea was it to include this crap into free software anyway??
Yes, the article and the C&D letters appear to be about the directory service provided by Shoutcast, called Shoutcast Radio. This is separate from Shoutcast, the protocol. The quoted sections posted over at the VLC web site specifically say "Shoutcast Radio" so it's reasonable to think they're talking about the directory service, not the streaming protocol. The protocol itself for streaming the audio is open, and AOL even tried to promote it under the name "Ultravox" and it never seemed to get anywhere. But all I see that the VLC site is talking about is Shoutcast Radio, the directory service.
It's also important to know that the protocol behind Shoutcast serves way more than half a million people. Most iPhone Apps that receive streaming audio are receiving them via the Shoutcast streaming protocol even if they're not using the Shoutcast Radio directory. In many cases the ICEcast open-source implementation of Shoutcast is what's being used. Let's see, CBS Radio (AOL and Yahoo Radio), AMFM's iheartradio, and so many others are using something very much like the Shoutcast protocol, once and no longer known as "Ultravox," for serving iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad clients. I don't know about Android but I would suspect they're using ICEcast since it's the one supported by the Ogg Vorbis crowd, too.
Shoutcast/ICEcast ICY protocol is in so many more places than people know. It might not be purely AOL's Shoutcast by Nullsoft, but it's someting mighty close to it, serving tens of millions of people.
We don't need the Shoutcast Radio directory. That's the technology in question from what I'm reading at VLC's web site.
Kriston
Not true. It is not even HTTP. It's its own protocol and just uses HTTP-like headers to handshake the start of the connection. Think of Shoutcast as a media container and the music file as the data. The server takes the ID3 tags and remembers them, then interleaves them with the audio data. In fact it is not just MP3: it is more common to be AAC today.
When you tune to a Shoutcast stream the name of the song appears even when in the middle of the song. You can't do that without interleaving the song data with the stream, which is not supported in MP3 nor AAC for that matter. It's the Shoutcast/ICEcast/ICY protocol. It's not HTTP. It's ICY.
I would even argue that the injunction is aimed at the use of Shoutcast Radio which is the online directory of Shoutcast streams that AOL aggregates and serves to Shoutcast Radio users. I don't believe the injunction talks about the Shoutcast protocol itself, either, which is also implemented in a free version under the name ICEcast and it's still used by lots of people including Ogg Vorbis.
Here's more for you to read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultravox_(software)
Kriston
to take the llama's bone.
VLC is what Winamp failed to become. Winamp jumped the shark when they tried to make it a video player and stuffed AOL baggage into it.
Well, if AOL can kiss your ass, and Shoutcast sucks so bad... why do you care? Go use someone else's internet radio... XM or something.
But that's a completely absurd thing to expect.
It would mean that once you have a customer, you're now obligated basically forever to handle all the traffic that comes to their address -- and after a certain number of customers, that can become quite a bit -- for free. Suddenly its not just your paid customers who are eating up your bandwidth, but *past* customers too?
Now sure, AOL has plenty of bandwidth. But still, that's not the point. The design of the email system isn't like phone numbers-- there's not a centralized and organized series of exchanges which route where numbers need to go and arrange for them to arrive at their proper destination... there's just "aol.com". AOL /has/ to receive and process that mail. And now you think they should forward that off forever?
Sure, it'd be *nice* of them, as a service.
Obligating someone to serve a former-customer forever is sort of silly though, even if they are dicks to said former-customer. The remedy to being the customer of a dick, is to stop being their customer.
If the potential cost of someone not finding you at your new email address is worth more then dealing with a dick-- you're free to make that choice.
...and it's a cease and desist letter. How sad.
Someone please mod up. Informative.
The Invisible Hand of the Free Market is what punches workers in the nuts.
Well, NetBSD/OpenBSD at least still use sun audio devices (as does the overwhelming installed base of Solaris), rather than OSS. Of course it's still far better than Alsa.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
I don't waste my time listening to streaming. If I want to hear something, I just go and get it. What annoys me is that this is just basic stuff that audio players have been doing for a very long time and now AOL wants to pull a heavy over it.
Hard to argue against that. All the best is what I can say.
Thanks, yes, I realize there are metadata streams involved as well. The underlying protocol is/was http though, they didn't invent that transport. Ultravox, multicasting etc. I wasn't aware of that stuff. When I thought of shoutcast, I was thinking in terms of "good old xmms" being able to handle those .pls files and connect to the streams URLs.
"Identify the protocol as penis:// or whatever you want, but it's still just http://"
You, sir, might have just found a better alternative to giving porn sites their own tld.
First Usenet article referencing Shoutcast was on December 31, 1998. It stated that Shoutcast had been released earlier that same day.
Icecast's first public release happened a few weeks later, on January 18, 1999, according to the tarball, which lines up neatly with the same date on the Freshmeat page.
Kid-proof tablet..
AOL is *still* around???
Out of curiosity, which provision of the Magnusson Moss Act covers reverse engineering? I thought it was all about warranties.
How am I supposed to get my MST3K fix now? Boo, AOL. Boo.
I run an internet radio station, kind of a big production, custom software, client code, special voice-mail, inbound news-feeds, etc...
Anyhow, I use shoutcast for two main reasons:
1.) Everyone looks in the shoutcast directory.
2.) License providers do not support ice cast. (sure, you can go "live365" but thats even worse.)
#2 means *I* can't add my stream to the ice cast directory and remain legal with the soundexchange people, w/out spending big bux for licenses.
I use freebsd, which means installing ancient "binary compatibility" crap so I can use their ancient, hasn't been updated in decades shoutcast server, I'm lucky the support freebsd at all I guess. The binary only business is highly annoying to me.
If the folks down at winamp/nullsoft find out you've reverse engineered the "protocol" (bit of a joke of a protocol really.. doesn't have near the functionality of icecast) they'll pull you from their directory.
The reason they have this "no-source allowed" policy is that their algorithm demands accurate reporting from the various shoutcast servers.
Funny, you weren't labelled troll but that's because there are scads of self-abnegating troll idiots who hate GPL and they'll mod you to the stratosphere.
The point is that the Shoutcast protocol is not copyrightable and the DMCA doesn't apply because its reverse engineering is required for interoperability.
Therefore this license is not liked because it's pointless: rewrite the code to the protocol specification and it's done.
But enjoy your GPL haterade.
$10 with google 'goodness'
Chat with other atheists http://secularchat.org
The DMCA may not exist in many countries, but it is what 'DVD Jon' was initially accused of violating though Norway is neither in the US or in the EU. That's how far out there the Microsoft / RIAA lobby is. The EU countries have since suffered the nastier DMCA equivalent, the EUCD.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
One thing I noticed when my WoW guild had a private radio was that, although the server uses one playlist for all visitors, it doesn't necessarily need to play the music in sync with everyone. We noticed this when some people got an advert (in our case, in jokes and event notifications) before a song started playing and some after it finished but no one actually missed any of the song or songs either side of it. Don't know if this is just the way the server handles the streaming or something in the way the data is sent.
Again, as I keep saying, the "underlying protocol" is not HTTP, it's ICY. The only part of the protocol that even remotely could be called HTTP is the initial exchange of headers on the beginning of the connection. It is not HTTP. Ask any company that tried to treat Shoutcast streams as HTTP and you'll find out it's not at all like HTTP. In addition to the interleaved metadata there are control signals sent back and forth and they're completely not anything like HTTP, either.
Kriston
Wow, way to show the white feather, pussies!
Didn’t you learn anything from 300?
GIVE THEM NOTHING, BUT TAKE FROM THEM EVERYTHING!
Our injunctions will blot out the server!
Then we will code off the net!
This is illegal! This is frivolous!
THIS! IS! OPENSOURCE!
*kicks AOL into obsoletion*
At the end of this day, people will know, that even a multinational corporation can go bankrupt!
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
First of all, as the other guy noted: Icecast is a clone of ShoutCast. I know because I followed the development since the beginning of WinAMP.
Now for my part:
I think the point of ShoutCast, is to be the largest and best directory of MP3 stream( radio)s on the net. The stream server? Nobody cares about that. There are lots of better alternatives, as you stated.
Build a clone of shoutcast.com, offer the radios a better deal, and *bam* shoutcast.com and the server software vanish from reality.
The radio stations only care about in-stream advertising anyway. And since that is their financing model, there is nobody who cares about any DRM. There is no point.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I like that idea. E-mail addresses really should be portable. It's ridiculous to have an address for a decade and have to change it just because the host wants to be a dick.
Really? Offtopic rating, for asking an informative on-topic comment to be modded up?
Whatever floats someone's boat....
The Invisible Hand of the Free Market is what punches workers in the nuts.
OK, if Shoutcast is useful, it's time to get a simple streaming protocol and let VLC and others use it. When Firefox, Chrome, Opera and KDE adopt it, Safari and IE will soon follow. Then, AOL's last cash source will die.
I can accept that.
Microsoft already has a competitive solution. If they are smart enough to open source (GPL compatible) a player, then they win. Oh well, competition is good, isn't it?
Too late, ICANN already approved .xxx