RIAA has got it all wrong

[notAFanB]

If they don't and have enough money to make the court system work to their advantage then fokk them. I pirate and recommend everyone to pirate microsoft as much as possible.

I sincerely hope ur joking or have some reason why we shouldn't apply the same logic elsewhere (read: anarchy).

 

[Willmeister]

If no one is buying software, then people won't make it... then what do you do? I agree that pricing is rather insane, but remember, that's how some people get to pay their bills.

So if these companies go bankrupt, don't come crying...

 

[Dave Baumann]

I pirate and recommend everyone to pirate microsoft as much as possible.

I recommend that you don't make such rcommendations on this forum, or you will be removed from it.

 

[Xmas]

I guess software companies should stop trying to protect their property as well?

See, I'm as upset as you for things like copy protection schemes that limit my hamper ability to legally do things like make my own compilation lists, and even just play the CD on "touchy" or older CD players.

But the difference is, I don't blame the record companies one bit for doing it. Their hand is being forced by music pirates.

You got me wrong Joe. I don't blame the record companies for trying to protect their property. I blame them for wasting money on fundamentally flawed "copy protection" methods. I don't know how the "copy protection" companies succeed in convincing the record companies that their product is "safe" and prevents pirating, fact is, it doesn't. And even if someone invented a protection mechanism that really worked and prevented 1:1 copies, you can still do a digital copy without much effort.
This might sound a bit contradictory. In theory, yes, I think they have any right to protect their property. In practice however, that's technically impossible. Still they try - and fail. Maybe some time in the future, when every hardware is DRM capable, they'll eventually succeed. But not today, not with "copy protected" CDs.

 

[Xmas]

My point is, if you stop buying CDs because you don't think much is worth it...that's fine. And if the record business goes down in flames because people just don't buy the stuff...then fine. That's how it's suppossed to work.

If people stop buying CDs because they can illegally get tracks for free off the 'net...then "that's bad."

What's bad, too, is that the record companies don't realize that the latter and the former is happening, and attribute their losses (read: shrinking profits) solely to piracy.

 

[Basic]

I just found a realy bad thing about the evil mp3s. My usual procedure is to buy a CD, rip it for the mp3 collection, and then put it in the book shelf, never to be touched again. (I actually have a few CDs that I've never ever listened to directly.)

Last night I was doing some rearranging in the book shelf, and noticed that I had three Shakira CDs (one more than I thought). Apparently I must have put one of them there before ripping, effectively making it disappear to me. Oh well, I'll see it as I've got a free CD now instead. I think I should go through the CD collection again to see if I've "lost" any more CDs.


Btw, can anybody recommend a good ripper/mp3-compressor? My current doesn't run under XP, so I have to fire up my old PC for ripping. And since I've got some damaged files, and the compressor in my program is said to not be the best, I might redo it all again. So I rather have a good program first.

 

[Natoma]

Audiocatalyst/Audiograbber (whatever name it goes by these days) works great Basic. That's what we used to rip our collection.

 

[Gump]

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

Like Sonic said I use P2P mainly for previewing CDs before buying. Sometimes I cannot find an alternative to listen to the CD as the local stores often only offer select CDs. Now if the stores I shop allowed me to return opened packages this wouldn't be a problem.

This reminds me, I really need to go through my HD and delete all those songs I didn't like, never bought, and still never listen to even though they're cluttering my HD.

On a related subject I can't wait until a good internet based solution is produced; similiar to iTunes but providing higher quality formats (> 192kbps). Also, what I'd like to see the music industry do is start producing 5.1/6.1/7.1 music DVDs. Keep the current prices for those and then drop the stereo CD prices and that would probably make a lot of people happy.

 

[Basic]

Thanks Natoma, I'll check it out.

... hmm still leaves the question what compressor to use.

Now ripping: In-grid, rendéz-vous

 

[Basic]

And thanks to you too, Gump. I didn't realize that your link was to me at first, since the post didn't say anything about it. (Doh! )

I'll try that one too. Being opensource is an extra plus.
And it will be interesting to try out the ogg support. I've never tried it before, what kind of quality are you supposed to get from that?

Edit:
Big-time ouch.
MusicMatch Jukebox rips ~5x real time on my P3 600.
CDex rips ~0.05x real time on my XP2400+.

That's 100 times slower on a CPU that should be ~4 times faster.
I do of course not know how much of it that can be blamed on the CD/DVD player.

 

[Gump]

I like Ogg Vorbis myself. You can even compress AC3 tracks into 5.1 Ogg.

 

[dksuiko]

Thief.

Thief.

Agreed. Next?

Turn yourself in to the authorities and sign up for the RIAA amnesty program. Otherwise, you're just a law-breaking fool who got away with theft.

 

[Natoma]

Thanks Natoma, I'll check it out.

... hmm still leaves the question what compressor to use.

Now ripping: In-grid, rendéz-vous

Audiocatalyst/Audiograbber rips and compresses. They use the XingMPEG encoder. Does it on the fly for you. Rips then compresses if you so choose and have the CPU speed to do it.

 

[Natoma]

Thief.

Thief.

Agreed. Next?

Turn yourself in to the authorities and sign up for the RIAA amnesty program. Otherwise, you're just a law-breaking fool who got away with theft.

Indeed.

/me sends Joe's info to the RIAA

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Turn yourself in to the authorities and sign up for the RIAA amnesty program. Otherwise, you're just a law-breaking fool who got away with theft.

I no longer posess any illegally duped copies of anything, and I admit my guilt. I did break the law, and I did get away with it.

I don't do it anymore, because I'm mature, I respect the law, and I respect the rights of companies and artists to protect their property.

If RIAA wants to come after me, they have every right to.

I repeat: the difference between me and you, is that I know what I did was wrong. I know and accept that there can be consequences for what I did.

 

[Humus]

Jaywalking is when you cross the street when you do not have the right of way. For instance, oncoming traffic has the green light. You're supposed to wait until oncoming traffic is given the red light, then you can cross. If you cross while "oncoming traffic" has the green light, even if there's not a single car on the street, you have jaywalked.

Lol, I never knew "jaywalking" actually meant something. ... except Jay Leno walking on the street interviewing stupid people of course ...

 

[Humus]

A little late into this topic but anyway, a comment on the "thief" accusations being slinged around here ... downloading or distributing music and so on is not theft, it's copyright infringment. Not the same thing, though one may morally value it as equally bad.

 

[Natoma]

Turn yourself in to the authorities and sign up for the RIAA amnesty program. Otherwise, you're just a law-breaking fool who got away with theft.

I no longer posess any illegally duped copies of anything, and I admit my guilt. I did break the law, and I did get away with it.

Turn yourself in. That's the only moral thing to do. You must pay for your crime. It doesn't matter if the crime happened yesterday or 30 years ago. Turn yourself in and face the law as any moral upstanding law abiding citizen should morally naturally constitutionally optimizationally should do.

I don't do it anymore, because I'm mature, I respect the law, and I respect the rights of companies and artists to protect their property.

Yet you broke the law and you didn't pay for your crime, figuratively or literally. Shame.

If RIAA wants to come after me, they have every right to.

Indeed they do. You should expect a knock at your door any day now what with the spies they have patrolling all internet boards, looking for signs of any lawbreakers.

I repeat: the difference between me and you, is that I know what I did was wrong. I know and accept that there can be consequences for what I did.

Sounds like someone is trying to make excuses for their past behavior. And let the record show, you stated that you knew it was "wrong" and you knew it was illegal, and yet you did not care! The horror! Burn the witch! Burn him!

 

[Sxotty]

And BTW, how is what I said a "personal attack?" I feel that Natoma getting sued or at least brought up on charges (along with everyone else who stole property) would be the right thing to do.

Joe have you ever run a stop sign, or sped(is that the right tense sppeding->sped lol)?

Have you ever willfully sped b/c you wanted to get somewhere sooner, well if so I don't wish you got a ticket I just hope you did it intelligently i.e. speeding in a schoolzone 20 mph over is worse than on an empty interstate. THe poitn...hmm just that it seems you have overly simplified this issue, for example I ordered an Avenged sevenfold CD from bestbuy they had it in the store in my town, but there it was priced $4 more, so I ordered it at bestbuy online, however the BB store in my town was not listed for in store pickup...soooo I had to wait, and then they told me it was out of stock so I d/l the songs and just last week I finally got the CD from BB after inumerable delays, now I had already paid for it so is it wrong, well I assume you would say so, but I really don't feel so guilty about it. I reencoded high quality mp3 since the ones I d/led were piss poor and now I listen to these in my car.

 

[Sabastian]

I don’t really have much to say on this subject overall but to voice my 2 cents on it all.

I diverge with the music industry here outright. I understand that my position contradicts IP laws. (If you consider music intellectual.) I believe that the industry is obese and the popularity file sharing shows just how unjust (IMO) the cost of purchasing music really is.(Christ I know lots of people who bought a computer just so that they can download movies and music.) The industry up until late has been walking on eggshells trying not to piss off the most rebellious aspect of the market economy so as to not jeopardize some sort of social backlash and implementing an advertising campaign that suggests that there will be less quality music unless we pay for expensive recordings. Never mind the suggestion is absolutely false a person with some good software and computer can make as good a quality recording at home in their own recording studio. I personally do not believe that actors and pop/rock stars or what have you actually are ripping people off to a degree. I know, I know people buy it freely etc. I simply think that musicians ought to distribute their music as inexpensively as possible and rely on concerts to generate a personal income. I mean the industry is so contrived if you think about it. Talent is picked up and put into a slot where the industry thinks that they will do well often. For example Canada’s Avril Lavigne was initially slated to be a country music singer. I saw the latest mtv music awards and my god I was shocked at how really appalling the singers really were. (In particular the rappers.) It was as if the industry picked the worst talent and propped them up as something exceptional. Bla how pathetic. The miserable thing is that it seems to work to a degree. If I did not have extensive background in playing the guitar then I might not realize that much of their music is nearly talent-less. What a stupid industry to support with your hard earned cash. Instead what ought to happen is the middle man should be cut out (Hollywood et al.) and the musicians like any other company compete directly with one another for an audience. Holding concerts seem like a legitimate means of making a living. I think that the industry suing a 12 year old is sickening and it is over such a trivial thing like music. Music should be free IMO. The industry is going to have to change or control what people share in file sharing software on their own computers. Really this sort of technology is not entertainment material friendly. I think maybe what they ought to do is rethink the entertainment industry substantially and musicians/actors finally start to face the reality that you don’t get to be a millionaire from working a couple of months on an album or movie. I say to hell with this particular industry technological advances have made it unfeasible, let it fail. Time to start paying them for what they are really worth in light of the reality of technology. I do not believe I will ever pay for an album ever again.