Ask Slashdot: How Do I Scrub Pirated Music From My Collection? 758
An anonymous reader writes "I tried out Google Music, and I liked it. Google made me swear that I won't upload any 'illegal' tracks, and apparently people fear Apple's iCloud turning into a honeypot for the RIAA. My music collection comprises about 90% 'legal' tracks now — legal meaning tracks that I paid for — but I still have some old MP3s kicking around from the original Napster. Moreover, I have a lot of MP3s that I downloaded because I was too lazy to rip the CD version that I own. I wanted to find a tool to scan my music to identify files that may be flagged as having been pirated by these cloud services; I thought such a tool would be free and easy to find. After all, my intent is to search my own computer for pirated music and to delete it — something that the RIAA wants the government to force you to do. But endless re-phrasing on Google leads to nothing but instructions for how to obtain pirated music. Does such a tool exist or does the RIAA seriously expect me to sift through 60 GB of music, remember which are pirated, and delete them by hand?"
Re:Lamest question I've ever seen on Slashdot. (Score:5, Interesting)
Smartest question I've seen on /.
If you yourself can't determine the legality of the (music) files you possess, how can the RIAA? a court?
used cd's (Score:4, Interesting)
what you don't have in cd format, buy in cd format (amazon often has used cd's at ok prices. shipping is never reasonable but its their profit margin 'tax').
advantage of used cds: 'the man' does not get paid. no riaa income on used cd's. its just the buyer and seller (and some middleman, perhaps). disadvantage: no money goes to the band (but they made their money the first time on that 'first sale').
if you are worried (I would not be, I think you are paranoid) then make sure you have cds for every file. and like I said, used cd's deprive the riaa of any income, so that's probably your best route.
personally, I think your first and only problem is even considering these 'cloud' services. copy enough songs to your portable to last a day (or run a random mix uploader) and what's so hard? today's portables are even big enough to hold what used to be our whole collection. many people could fit their entire collection on portables. the cloud is about 5 years too late, to be serious.
Statute of Limitations? (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically, is the statute of limitations applicable to downloaded music? In my limited legal knowledge, it's not a felony to download music, afik, so misdemeanors typically fall under a 7-year statute of limitation, and so if you downloaded stuff from Napster's heyday, more than 10 years ago, could those mp3s even be used to legally prosecute you?
Of course I know we're talking about the RIAA here, and they act as if the law doesn't apply to them in their dealing. But I'm curious.
Re:rerip your CD collection (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, if you're not using $33K Nordost Whitelight fiber-optic cables, you're just wasting your time, any way: http://most-expensive.net/audio-cables [most-expensive.net]
Re:rerip your CD collection (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually I can tell the difference between my q=4 Ogg Vorbis and my FLAC, but only on good equipment. Monster speakers or headphones or whatnot with golden cables don't do shit; but shitty speakers, poor sound cards, and the like really do degrade quality. I put a $10 Sound Blaster Audigy2 into my computer and I have decent speakers I paid $50 for and it made a huge difference; I want some Klipsch or whatever the brand is, I love their shit.
It's notable that q=4 Ogg Vorbis doesn't sound muddy, suppressed, or weird ... no notable artifacts. But when you play it against the FLAC, it does sound a little suppressed. The FLAC is obviously clearer, more dynamic, and has more depth. This is less important today, unfortunately, than it was 20 years ago; I have 20 year old CDs, and they're a lot quieter, with a much better dynamic range. High dynamic range is really noticeable when slapped down next to a fucked up compressed master.
But, on a standard RealTek AC97 built-in sound card, even on my decent speakers, you can't tell. The difference is non-existent. The audio hardware just sucks. Same with an iPod. My shitty motorola cliq cell phone is horrible, but the sound chipset is GODLY and when I swapped to it instead of an iPod for a media player I was seriously surprised.