Foo - Music downloads

I'm talking legal downloads.
What's your favorite music site and why?

itunes, nice selection, a bit more expensive per song then some other sites, but still great nontheless. Also, im a podcast addict, and i never would have found them if i was using any other site.

I'm still waiting for anyone to come out with a service that offers known bands but without digital rights management. Until that becomes available (I'd guess a minimum of 3 years, possibly never), I'm content to buy the CD's and make my own legal copies of my music for my own use. I currently have over 4 GB comprising 800 songs from ~50 CD's, legally purchased. I'd be more than willing to pay $1 to download individual songs from groups that I don't want a whole CD from, but the record companies aren't willing to sell them to me in a manner that is convenient for me.

If I had more time, I'd probably start to look into independent groups that are willing to distribute their music in a friendly manner, but it's hard to know beforehand what you're getting.

Most music download sites use 128 bit rate. Some low-end site use 88 bit rate. CD quality is 192 bit rate.

If playing music on an IPOD or other portable music device (bit rate of 128) this is acceptable. If you decide to play a song on your home stereo with a massive range of noise reproduction with nice tweeters and a sub woofer you will notice a lower sound quality.

So music download is best suited for portable music.

Back in the kazaa days you could sort by bit rate. Songs could be even be downloaded with a 256 bit rate which is higher quality than cd.

If anyone knows of a site that downloads at 192 bps that would be great.

allofmp3.com

you'll thank me later

allofmp3.com

you'll thank me later


I'll go ahead and thank you now! :D

Thanks! http://jm.g.free.fr/smileys/yelclap.gif

Hah. I wonder how long that site is going to last. That doesn't look very legal to me.

Hah. I wonder how long that site is going to last. That doesn't look very legal to me.

It's perfectly legal.

allofmp3.com

you'll thank me later

From the FAQ

Is it legal to download music from AllOFMP3.com?
The availability over the Internet of the ALLOFMP3.com materials is authorized by the license # LS-3М-05-03 of the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (ROMS) and license # 006/3M-05 of the Rightholders Federation for Collective Copyright Management of Works Used Interactively (FAIR). In accordance to the licenses' terms MediaServices pays license fees for all materials downloaded from the site subject to the Law of the Russian Federation "On Copyright and Related Rights". All these materials are solely for personal use. Any further distribution, resale or broadcasting are prohibited.

The works available from ALLOFMP3.com are protected by the Law of the Russian Federation "On Copyright and Related Rights" and are for personal use of a buyer. Commercial use of such material is prohibited. Recording, copying, distribution on any media is possible only upon special consent of a Rightholder.

The user bears sole responsibility for any use and distribution of all materials received from AllOFMP3.com. This responsibility is dependent on the national legislation in each user's country of residence. The Administration of AllOFMP3.com does not possess information on the laws of each particular country and is not responsible for the actions of foreign users.


What do you make of the last paragraph?

From the FAQ


What do you make of the last paragraph?

I would say it's pretty self-explanatory?

Some people are clueless aren't they.

i would say if you have itunes. then itunes is my fav. its easy, safe, and they have a good lot of music.

I'm with iamlucky. I want something that has no restrictive drm that requires flipping through rings of fire to do anything with it.

From the FAQ


What do you make of the last paragraph?

It's not really legal.

iTunes store downloads are in 192 kb/s AAC format. CD's have a 384 kb/s bitrate. If you buy from iTMS, you can burn it to disc, then use that copy to rip the song into any format you choose, without DRM protection. There are other methods availabe but I'm not sure of the legality of them.

Apple's DRM scheme is pretty loose; you can make copies of the songs you buy, store them on your iPod, stream them to all your buddies, burn to cd. You can't make more than 10 copies of the same playlist but who does that anyway? You can't unload all your iPodded songs onto your buddies' computers but you are allowed to store them on three computers.

I've only downloaded a few of their free songs. I've got over 300 cds and ~1700 lps plus 300 45's.


It's the record companies that insist on DRM. They keep trying to put it on cd's you buy at the store, too.

iTunes is the most user friendly of all music services. Plus it has great conversion tools to convert CDs to mp3, AAC or apple lossless compression.

If I really want a song, I'll go out and buy the CD, and convert it. Sometimes you find some obscure little gems hidden with the hits.

Many public libraries offer older CDs for a small borrowers fee. Its a great way to expand your music library (Since I already own many of the songs on vinyl, I don't feel guilty)

http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm:

"Q. Is Allofmp3 legal?

A. The most frequently asked question. We have thoroughly investigated this.

You will not find Allofmp3 in the list of legal music services supported by the IFPI at www.pro-music.org.

Organizations like IFPI and the RIAA are doing their best to avoid any publicity when it comes to the legal services in Russia. There is a loophole in the Russian copyright legislation that makes services like Allofmp3 possible. Apparently this loophole cannot be closed easily. Russian copyright legislation allows phonograms to be performed publicly without the authorization of the copyright owner for broadcasting and cable transmission. (Article 39) The Internet could be deemed to fall under this exemption. The copyrights involved have to be paid to a collecting society. This is the 'loophole' that is referred to in several articles on Allofmp3.

An English translation of the Russian copyright legislation can be found at www.copyrighter.ru

Allofmp3 has signed agreements for this with Russian Organization for Multimedia & Digital Systems (ROMS). According to license № ЛС-ЗМ-02-36 the Internet-project www.allofmp3.com, has the right to use musical compositions by providing downloads. Under the license agreement Allofmp3 pays out fees to ROMS for downloaded materials that are subject to the Russian Federation Copyright And Related Rights Law.

ROMS manages intellectual rights in the Russian Federation. All third party distributors licensed by ROMS are required to pay a portion of the revenue to the ROMS. ROMS in turn, is obligated to pay most of that money (aside from small portion it needs for operating expenses) to artists. Both Russian and foreign. "

I hope this helps. Now who's clueless?

If you get arrested and this gets put up in a legal court in America you will be found guilty. Russia and many european and asian countries do not have piracy laws so in Russia they are legal.
If you think russian law applies to America you are even more clueless then originally thought (politely stated). Go talk to a lawyer and see how fast you would get your ass handed to you. Better yet go buy 100 songs for 25 cents and then go show the RIAA what you did. They would be happy to serve you your ass without lube :)

non-legal Interpretration of russian rules does not apply to legal rules in America. Anybody that does should attend law-school or simply watch a bit of educational law-related shows that they offer on cable and sat :)

If you get arrested and this gets put up in a legal court in America you will be found guilty. Russia and many european and asian countries do not have piracy laws so in Russia they are legal.
If you think russian law applies to America you are even more clueless then originally thought (politely stated). Go talk to a lawyer and see how fast you would get your ass handed to you. Better yet go buy 100 songs for 25 cents and then go show the RIAA what you did. They would be happy to serve you your ass without lube :)

non-legal Interpretration of russian rules does not apply to legal rules in America. Anybody that does should attend law-school or simply watch a bit of educational law-related shows that they offer on cable and sat :)

Under what American law would I be arrested? Did you even READ the hyperlink I put up?

I'll just skip to the end and terminate this annoying back and forth with the various posters on this thread who have variously labeled me as clueless and who pontificate great horrible prognostications of arrest and imprisonment. Name the American law I am breaking, or STFU. Your condescending attitude is annoying. NOTE: The RIAA is not a law enforcement agency.

Under what American law would I be arrested? Did you even READ the hyperlink I put up?

I'll just skip to the end and terminate this annoying back and forth with the various posters on this thread who have variously labeled me as clueless and who pontificate great horrible prognostications of arrest and imprisonment. Name the American law I am breaking, or STFU. Your condescending attitude is annoying. NOTE: The RIAA is not a law enforcement agency.
And yet the RIAA and numerous judges have put people into prison and stiffed them with major fines for violating Copyright protections. In case you haven't heard of them you should probably go read them. But like I said, don't take my word for it. Simply downlaod 1000 songs, go to the RIAA, go to a judge or go to a laywer, in form them that you purchased music under Russian laws that violate American copyright laws and see what they do.

And yet the RIAA and numerous judges have put people into prison and stiffed them with major fines for violating Copyright protections. In case you haven't heard of them you should probably go read them. But like I said, don't take my word for it. Simply downlaod 1000 songs, go to the RIAA, go to a judge or go to a laywer, in form them that you purchased music under Russian laws that violate American copyright laws and see what they do.

Sigh. What copyright restrictions am I violating, sir, by downlaoding music from allofmp3.com?


in form them that you purchased music under Russian laws that violate American copyright laws and see what they do.

Since I have not violated any American laws, why would I want do that?

Sigh. What copyright restrictions am I violating, sir, by downlaoding music from allofmp3.com?



Since I have not violated any American laws, why would I want do that?
So all of the people that downloaded music from Kazaa, Napster and all of the other "prior" legal services, who have gotten sued, and all of the work that the world and USA especially has put into DMCA and copyright protection - you're saying that none of that applies to digitally copyrighted music, most of which allofmp3.com provides. I know that Pink's music label did not sign allofmp3.com as capable of selling her songs for 9 cents a piece. And yet they had her whole album up there.

Illegal Distribution and copyright violation. Almost every song I saw on there is covered by the DMCA and/or other copyright laws that America has. By being an american citizen you are required to abide by those rules.

http://www.anti-dmca.org/ - For those against DMCA
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/ - For those who think it's legal to copy somebody elses music, art or work or otherwise copyrighted/panteded product.
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/copyrightoffice/ Another interesting website.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_protection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU_Copyright_Directive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIPO

Until america says its okay to steal other peoples music, art or what not downloading music from any website that has copyrighted music such as that contained by allofmp3.com is not considered legal in America.

If you are unable to conclude that
a) alot if not most of the musc offered by allofmp3.com is protected under American copyright and DMCA laws
b) The site does not have a contractual binding to be licensing and distributing copyrighted music from the music label companies
c) that downloading music from an unauthorized distributor of music is violating the holder's copyrights
then I guess that's where it stays.

And yet the RIAA and numerous judges have put people into prison and stiffed them with major fines for violating Copyright protections. In case you haven't heard of them you should probably go read them. But like I said, don't take my word for it. Simply downlaod 1000 songs, go to the RIAA, go to a judge or go to a laywer, in form them that you purchased music under Russian laws that violate American copyright laws and see what they do.
The RIAA has not put anyone in person. They are a private entity. All they can do is file a copyright infringement suit against someone.

I've read the pertinent (http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html) laws (http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/pl109-9.html), and the only provision for jail time that I can see is if the person who infringed a copyright willfully did so either -

(1) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain, or

(2) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000.

The stated value of the music on allofmp3.com is so low that it would take more than 1000 songs to hit $1000.

The RIAA has not put anyone in person. They are a private entity. All they can do is file a copyright infringement suit against someone.

I've read the pertinent (http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html) laws (http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/pl109-9.html), and the only provision for jail time that I can see is if the person who infringed a copyright willfully did so either -

(1) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain, or

(2) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000.

The stated value of the music on allofmp3.com is so low that it would take more than 1000 songs to hit $1000.

Yeah. its funny, long before the RIAA got big - afew years back in fact
Somebody was caught hacking into something - I'm not sure what itwas
he was caught and charges were filed. Now the standard procedure in this is to sieze the person's computer. Well the case went to court and for some reason the charges didn't stick. So they stuck the person with charges of copyright theft because the person had illegal copies of numerous authors. And they stuck those charges with him and i do believe, but won't say for a positive fact, that he ended up serving some sort of time.


it's actually quite funny because you7 could steal a cd of music off of the internet and get away with it, or maybe pay x amount of fines, but what happens when you go into wal-mart and steal the cd and get caught?

It's extremely humorous how people think that there is an actual difference between the 2.
Can somebody please explain why they think there is such a huge difference between
"stealing music from a website" that makes this right
and stealing a cd from wal-mart and that makes this wrong?

The RIAA has not put anyone in person. They are a private entity. All they can do is file a copyright infringement suit against someone.

I've read the pertinent (http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html) laws (http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/pl109-9.html), and the only provision for jail time that I can see is if the person who infringed a copyright willfully did so either -

(1) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain, or

(2) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000.

The stated value of the music on allofmp3.com is so low that it would take more than 1000 songs to hit $1000.
yeah the fines are extremely meek when contrasting to repetitive stealing of cd's from wal-mart. Kids have done time in juvenile detection and adults have done time in prison (whether its days or months) for lesser amounts of value from a regular store.

No one is stealing anything SIR. The website in question sells downloadable music, and, as has been mentioned innumerable times already in this same thread, it is perfectly legal for Americans to use this service.

Dave

No one is stealing anything SIR. The website in question sells downloadable music, and, as has been mentioned innumerable times already in this same thread, it is perfectly legal for Americans to use this service.

Dave

They have no contact with any music labels. Therefore they are illegally distributing music without the author's permission. Please read up on contracts :) and the ability to sell.
They are taking a piece of music and without compensating the artists they are selling it for 1/10th the price and pocketing all of the profit.

So far to the best of my knowledge, the RIAA has only pressed charges against people for offering their music illegally for downloading, not for being the person downloading it.

I'm not going to try to pass hard legal judgement on allofMP3.com because I don't feel like looking up background on it right now, but I dare say it misses the ethical purpose of copyright laws: to safeguard the ability of content creators (ie, artists) to choose how to make their creations available to others. In this respect, it appears to me that allofMP3.com is genuinely unethical, and I maintain that ethics rank higher than laws, which attempt to define ethics in a way that can be usefully judged in society.

Jeesh, I just wanted to know about music downloading, and it seems this went sideways.

My wife is an attorney in WA, and I told her about the opposing opinions on this thread. This is what she has to say: To download music from this particular web site would be violating Title 17 of the United States Code if that music is protected under the provisions of Title 17, and the distributor does not have a proper license to distribute the music. It does not matter whether or not there is a "purchase price" because putting a price on the download does not override statutes.

The focus is on the laws that govern the particular music and not the laws that govern the source (distributor). So, if someone downloaded the music of an artist whose music was protected under Title 17, US Code, and the person that downloaded the music was in the US, then that person would be liable for copyright infringement. It appears the only safe music to download is that which is protected under the intellectual property laws of Russia. The alleged loophole is in that body of law, and not the US Code.

Futhermore, under laws in the US, one is liable for copyright infringement by being in possession illegally downloaded music even when the person has no knowledge that the music was illegally downloaded. Lack of knowledge is not a defense.

For further reading, look to the case law in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and there's a great book called Copyright in a Nutshell that explains a lot in layman's terms.

Anybody for ITunes???

Your wife is incorrect, sir.

Title 17 Chapter 6 Sec. 602 of the U.S. Code covers “Infringing importation of copies or phonorecords”. You can find this title here (http://assembler.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000602----000-.html)

Subsection (a) tells us:

“Importation into the United States, without the authority of the owner of copyright under this title, of copies or phonorecords of a work that have been acquired outside the United States is an infringement of the exclusive right to distribute copies or phonorecords under section 106, actionable under section 501.”

So it's illegal you may think. But take a close look at sub (a)(2):

“This subsection does not apply to importation, for the private use of the importer and not for distribution, by any person with respect to no more than one copy or phonorecord of any one work at any one time, or by any person arriving from outside the United States with respect to copies or phonorecords forming part of such person's personal baggage;”

If MP3’s, OGG’s etc are in fact considered phonorecords, U.S. citizens can legally buy these as long if they are for private use and not for distribution. If MP3s, OGG’s etc. are not considered phonorecords, no import laws apply. The sections of Title 17 which pertain to digital audio recording and sound recording have no mention of importation.

So in layman's terms the bottom line of this discussion is:

Downloading from Allofmp3 is legal for U.S. Citizens, as long as the files are for private use and not for distribution.

They have no contact with any music labels. Therefore they are illegally distributing music without the author's permission. Please read up on contracts :) and the ability to sell.


Sigh. They are under no legal, ethical, nor moral obligation to be in 'contact with any music labels'. "Allofmp3 has signed agreements for this with Russian Organization for Multimedia & Digital Systems (ROMS). According to license № ЛС-ЗМ-02-36 the Internet-project www.allofmp3.com has the right to use musical compositions by providing downloads. Under the license agreement Allofmp3 pays out fees to ROMS for downloaded materials that are subject to the Russian Federation Copyright And Related Rights Law.


They are taking a piece of music and without compensating the artists they are selling it for 1/10th the price and pocketing all of the profit.

"Copyright organizations in Russia, unlike most of their colleagues abroad, are willing to close favorable deals with online music services. For one thing copyrights for downloads in Russia are more or less equal to the rights radio stations have to pay for broadcasting music. But the most important factor is that one US dollar is worth lots of rubles. In Russia CDs cost about 100 rubles ($3). So to Russians Allofmp3 is in fact almost as expensive as iTunes to Americans."

Sorry, anyone care to try again?

I like www.walmart.com. No, i am not kidding. It is simple and to the point. You find a song and download it. No software to install that i recall. If there is it was very short and sweet. I tried Napster and it is a pain in the butt.

I don't want to spend an hour trying to figure out how to download a song. At walmart.com, you don't have to. Most songs are 88 cents.

So, Bunabayashi, are you going to take Texas Guy's dare and inform the RIAA that you've downloaded songs from this Russian site?

So, Bunabayashi, are you going to take Texas Guy's dare and inform the RIAA that you've downloaded songs from this Russian site?

Uh, no.

Uh, no.




http://animals.timduru.org/dirlist/chicken/chicken-farm3.jpg

Are you calling me a cock, sir?

So, Bunabayashi, are you going to take Texas Guy's dare and inform the RIAA that you've downloaded songs from this Russian site?
Why should he? If what he's doing is legal, it's no business of the RIAA that he's doing it.

Why should he? If what he's doing is legal, it's no business of the RIAA that he's doing it.

EXACTLY.

If I traveled to Russia, visited a Tower Records in St. Petersburg, bought a bunch of CD's, and them came home and put them in my private collection, should I contact the RIAA?

So has anyone successfully used allofmp3 to acquire music without any complications? I'm very tempted to buy a few things but am a little wary. I want to make sure none of my Rooskie comrades are going to empty my account. I know very little of the Russian mafia. Vodka for everyone!

So has anyone successfully used allofmp3 to acquire music without any complications? I'm very tempted to buy a few things but am a little wary. I want to make sure none of my Rooskie comrades are going to empty my account. I know very little of the Russian mafia. Vodka for everyone!

I have an account with them, and have been very satisfied. No, they're not hooked up with the Russian mafia. Their customer service is excellent.