Posted on 01/27/2008 7:37:25 PM PST by Stoat
I liked the headline for this story on another site:
Free DRM Infected Music with Ads
Ping to check out
I can guarantee it allows the company to see more than that. I bet it scans every music file on your system then monitors everything you listen to and sends everything it can about you back to the "company".
iPod |
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Send FReepmail if you want on/off iPing list WARNING: This is a high-volume Ping list. Turn your headphones down |
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The List of Ping Lists |
By ALEX VEIGA 1 hour ago
LOS ANGELES (AP) A revamped online file-sharing service that promised to offer unlimited, free music downloads from all the major record labels hit an apparent snag Sunday after one denied it had given the service permission.
Qtrax touted in a press release Sunday morning that it was the first Internet file-swapping service to be "fully embraced by the music industry," and boasted it would carry up to 30 million tracks from "all the major labels."
New York-based Warner Music undermined that claim, declared in a statement that it "has not authorized the use of our content on Qtrax's recently announced service."
Universal Music Group and EMI Group PLC later confirmed they did not have licensing deals in place with Qtrax, noting discussions were still ongoing. A call to Sony BMG Music Entertainment was not immediately returned.
Justin Kazmark, a spokesman for New York-based Qtrax, declined to comment late Sunday.
Qtrax had been scheduled to make its online debut on Monday, a day after its splashy coming-out party at the annual Midem music business conference in Cannes, France.
The development marked an inauspicious start for Qtrax, the latest online music venture counting on the lure of free music to draw in music fans and on advertising to pay the bills, namely record company licensing fees.
The service was among several peer-to-peer file-sharing applications that emerged following the shutdown of Napster, the pioneer service that enabled millions to illegally copy songs stored in other music fans' computers.
Qtrax shut down after a few months following its 2002 launch to avoid potential legal trouble.
The company said it latest version of the service still lets users tap into file-sharing networks to search for music. Downwloads however come with copy-protection technology known as digital-rights management, or DRM, to prevent users from burning copies to a CD and calculate how to divvy up advertising sales with labels.
Qtrax downloads can be stored indefinitely on PCs and transferred onto portable music players, however.
The company also promises that its music downloads will be playable on Apple Inc.'s iPods and Macintosh computers until April 15. That's unusual, as iPods only playback unrestricted MP3s files or tracks with Apple's proprietary version of DRM, dubbed FairPlay.
Allan Klepfisz, Qtrax's president and chief executive said in a recent interview, declined to give specifics on how Qtrax will make its audio files compatible with Apple devices, but noted that "Apple has nothing to do with it."
Apple has been resistant in the past to license FairPlay to other online music retailers. That stance has effectively limited iPod users to loading up their players with tracks purchased from Apple's iTunes Music Store, or MP3s ripped from CDs or bought from vendors such as eMusic or Amazon.com.
Rob Enderle, technology analyst at the San Jose-based Enderle Group, said he expects Apple would take steps to block Qtrax files from working on iPods.
Last fall, the company issued a software update for its iPhones that created problems for units modified by owners so they would work with a cellular carrier other than AT&T Inc. As a result, some modified phones ceased to work after the software update.
The move prompted antitrust lawsuits on behalf of some consumers.
On the Net:
Qtrax: www.qtrax.com
I have no doubt. I seem to recall a big flap some months ago where it was discovered that Apple was hiding specific identifiers in their hosted music tracks that allowed them to determine if the purchaser of the song shared it with someone else.
I would imagine that a "hacked" version of the Qtrax software will appear within days proclaiming to circumvent any spyware functions of the software.
It will be interesting to watch all this play out, if you'll pardon the pun :-)
ping
Ping
That might be a woman.
PING!
Google search:
intitle:”index of” (mp3|wav|wma) rockford.files
“Nor is a lack of compatibility with the iPod player expected to put fans off. Apple is unlikely to allow tracks downloaded from its rival to be compatible with iPods”
Apple can ESAD. They’ll never get a penny from me. Pack of America hating, dope-huffing pervert hippies.
“Nor is a lack of compatibility with the iPod player expected to put fans off. Apple is unlikely to allow tracks downloaded from its rival to be compatible with iPods”
Apple can ESAD. They’ll never get a penny from me. Pack of America hating, dope-huffing pervert hippies.
No DRM here thanks. I will continue to control the software, and all files including audio on my PERSONAL computer, not big brother.
So if somebody downloads a DRM-infested 'free' song from Qtrax, strips the DRM from it and then uploads it as a Bit Torrent file would that person be committing a crime?
I suppose so.
Bump for later reading.
Thanks very much for the update! :-)
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