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Reddit Tells Label It Won't Cough Up IP Address of Prerelease Music Pirate (arstechnica.com)
David Kravets, writing for Ars Technica: Reddit says it won't give Atlantic Records the IP address of a Reddit user who posted a link on the site of a single by Twenty One Pilots a week before the song's planned release. The song, "Heathens," was originally uploaded on June 15 to the file-sharing site Dropfile. That same day, the file landed on Reddit. According to a lawsuit (PDF) in New York State Supreme Court, the file was posted to the Twenty One Pilots subreddit with the title âoe[Leak] New Song -- 'Heathens'. The Poster submitted the link under the username "twentyoneheathens," according to Atlantic. Atlantic and its subsidiary label, Fueled by Ramen, want the IP address of the Reddit leaker. The company said the file fell victim to "widespread distribution" on the Internet, so the company released the single June 16, a week ahead of schedule; the label also said the early release hindered a planned rollout on Spotify, iTunes, and other platforms. Atlantic says the leaker must be an Atlantic employee who was contractually obligated not to leak the track, which is featured in the movie Suicide Squad that debuted earlier this month. Reddit, however, said that Atlantic "has failed to show that its claims are meritorious." Reddit claims Atlantic has embarked on "an impermissible fishing expedition."
What would Slashdot do?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Twenty One Pilots is awful music. I mean, really really bad. If you really find the need to listen to white boy rapping, go listen to Action Bronson or (if you must) Post Malone, who actually have a little bit of talent (AB has a lot of talent). Better yet, go listen to Chance the Rapper's new album. I don't even like rap, but I can hear that there's a talented guy working at a high level.
I'll bet that whoever at Atlantic Records released this music ahead of schedule on Reddit did so hoping that it would mess up the release so that the band would go out of business and they wouldn't have to hear their horrible music any more. His next move is to steal the master tapes Mission Impossible-style and incinerate them and bury the ashes like radioactive waste.
But I guess your mileage may vary if you have absolutely no taste.
You are welcome on my lawn.
They did not ask Dropfile for the IP of that user? That would make more sense because that guy definitely is guilty. The Reddit poster, although guilty of bad taste, just posted a link to something already on the internet. Good luck proving he actually uploaded it to Dropfile.
As well it should be. There was plenty of time, effort and someone else's money expended to produce this product which will not be recouped. The artists, who took time from their lives to produce the music, won't get paid.
This is absolutely no different than if you were writing software for a company and someone released the software before it went on sale. You don't paid.
But that would be a travesty, wouldn't it, when you don't get paid for the work you did, but when someone else doesn't get paid for the work they did, fuck 'em, right?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
It's an extraordinary remedy called a"Norwich Order", and to oversimplify, the requester has to swear they're suing someone, and the suit has to have a "prima facie case of" an offence and the claim has to appear to be reasonable and made in good faith. See also http://www.canlii.org/en/on/on...
Ordinary suits are filed against John Doe, and the courts asked to issue a order to third parties to help identify the defendants.
davecb@spamcop.net
No, but the judge hearing the lawsuit does.
What lawsuit? This is the label requesting the information, not a judge.
Yep so they should go after THEIR employee that THEY HIRED who turned out not to be trustworthy
That's what they're trying to do. They need something called EVIDENCE that can help them identify the employee. That could be the IP address used to post the song.
Reddit claims it is a fishing expedition. Sorry, not. The song was posted, it was pre-release and in violation of copyright. There is no doubt of that. The only part that is relevant to "fishing" is that the music company wants to be allowed to pull up the right line which already has a fish attached.
You cannot blame "the internet" for doing what the internet is doing - making stuff worldwide once it's out there.
That's not what is happening.
AN IP address is not an identifiable to a person. It may not even be legitimate (think TOR or Proxy Service).
It is a fishing expedition. The ocean is big, they know its a fish, they are hoping to catch the right fish.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
What was posted to Reddit was a link to the file that was uploaded to Dropfile. The Reddit user who posted the link may not be (and, in fact, likely isn't) the same person who uploaded it to Dropfile; the Reddit user is, most likely, someone with whom the untrustworthy employee who needs to be prosecuted shared the download link.
They need to go after the uploader and only Dropfile can identify the IP address from which the file was uploaded.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Ah, from the TFA:
What's more, Reddit suggests that Atlantic is targeting the wrong website. "Notably, Atlantic has failed to describe its efforts, if any, to obtain such information from Dropfile.to, the website to which the song was uploaded," Reddit's brief said. It also said that "a petition for pre-action discovery should be granted only if a petitioner demonstrates that he has a meritorious cause of action and the information sought is material and necessary to an existing and actionable wrong."
At least someone at Reddit is on the ball.
Wearing pants should always be optional.
All these weird stories about the movie Suicide Squad.......it makes me wonder if someone is trying some kind of astro-turfing thing to give support to the movie. The studio themselves probably leaked the soundtrack. Maybe they hired people with sock-puppet accounts to complain about Rotten Tomatoes. The whole thing is weird.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
That isn't Reddit's problem in any way, shape or form. The file was uploaded to Dropfile allegedly by an Atlantic Records employee. Reddit had nothing to do with it and are taking the right action by telling Atlantic to go get screwed.
Quite right. There are all kinds of sales for this track, stemming directly from the release.
This is not about "not being paid".
This is about the artificial scarcity and exclusivity agreements the label had in mind, and their not getting them.
Did the leaker break the law? Maybe. Hard to say. Could have been a sound room worker trying to get the file to some exec who can't be arsed to use company email while they are out gething hookers and blow, which was just picked up by a user that uses reddit, and linked.
The story here is this:
Somehow, the song leaked on dropfile.
Somebody on reddit posted a link.
Recording album "forced" to release early, cries bitter tears over the piles of money they didn't get while wallowing in the piles of money the leak generated; demands the data on the reddit user who posted the link so they can burn them at the altar of capital finance, actual guilt be damned.
No, they demand blood because someone decided to give the fruits of their labor away to random people who think they have the right to get it for free.
This is about marketing, not product. Almost every song ever released is available free to anyone who care to steal it - this "leak" doesn't change that in any way. This was all about building the marketing hype for the new album, giving/selling exclusivity deals to first radio play, that sort of thing. Sometimes "leaking" the album this way is a deliberate part of the marketing strategy, as some people will listen to it just because of the manufactured scandal who would never have heard of the album otherwise.
iTunes has proven people will pay for music they like. All else is marketing.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Posting a link on reddit isn't illegal and as there is absolutely no evidence that whoever posted it has anything to do with whoever uploaded the file to a completely different site, only a supposition, Reddit are right to tell Atlantic to fuck off.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
In other news, a burglar the authorities are calling the "Basil Bandit" has made off with dozens -- perhaps hundreds -- of spice containers stolen from the offices of the Recording Industry Association of America. Security footage shows a hooded figure carrying armloads of cumin, paprika, onion powder, and thyme.
A facilities manager was seen staring blankly at a long row of empty cupboards, lamenting, "They... they took it all! Every last spice!"
No word yet on the thief's identity or motive, but a psychological profiler working with law enforcement paints a stark picture. "Adult male, 25-40, anger issues, filled with bitterness and salty rage. Possibly a former employee who left on bad terms. Poorly educated; certainly no sage or scholar. I'd treat this suspect gingerly -- someone who'd attempt this kind of caper likely has a criminal history peppered with major thefts and violent assaults."
The Basil Bandit also left a chilling message that has authorities scrambling to prevent his next heist. That message, written in what appears to be chili powder, reads: "I despice RIAA/Rightscorp etc"
We'll keep you updated as the investigation unfolds.
Nothing posted to
All too true. If the record company really wanted the person responsible they would be going to Dropfile and try to get the address of the person who uploaded. That very well could be an employee. The person who posted the link to Reddit could have just read about the song elsewhere and thought it would be great to share the link and have no connection to the company at all.