Illegal mp3's

guitarboy2828

So.. I thought I would just inform anyone on this forum who may be on the illegal side of life...

Someone very close to me had their pc taken away due to certain activities they were doing, which were illegal. However, while the police had their pc, they scanned through the HDD's and found the music folder... 40 000 songs.. Most of which are illegally downloaded. The fine for that is R5000 a song...

SOOO.. If you have illegal music, delete it, go buy the cd. You may just be saving yourself A LOT more money in the long run.

DonovanB

hectic, how did the yobs find out about it? what activities were they doing?

guitarboy2828

Just don't hack.. and get caught.. and buy cd's.. don't download illegal ones.. when you get caught.. it is scary..

DonovanB

was he hacking? swak...

I've started buying downloads anyway. much better.

RobK

DonovanB wrote was he hacking? swak...

I've started buying downloads anyway. much better.

Not from one of those Russian sites, right? ? - I think it also falls under illegal download, even though you pay for it.

Jack-Flash-Jr

eMusic rocks btw.

inflames

I have never bought music from the internet, more of a cd type of guy!

Just one question, how do you proof to the police that the songs on your pc is songs that you bought over the internet?

guitarboy2828

Good question inflames.. I'm not sure.. I'm not sure how they prove it's illegal. It's a funny topic.. Not sure how that whole thing works..

doc-phil

yoh... R5000 a song! Your mate just found himself R200m in debt??? That can't be right.. ??? As far as I know the penalty for actually uploading songs on torrent sites etc is far steeper than actually downloading.

But still, that is a strong argument for not having illegal mp3s (and games/movies) on your pc.

DonovanB

and software

aubs1

guitarboy2828 wrote Someone very close to me had their pc taken away due to certain activities they were doing, which were illegal.

So he was'nt nailed for illegally down-loading music, but something else.......finding his MP3s was purely a bonus for the cops?
So they 'forget' about the original reason they got stuck into his HDD, the R200m "find" is so much more lucrative.......hahahaha..... ?

Squonk

Just one silly question
How do you prove that the mp3's you have are legal?

RobK

i don't buy music online. Mostly because most of the legit stuff is DRMed to the hilt. I susoect that the supplier of the music does keep some sort of record of your purchases that you could acess if you needed to.

Jack-Flash-Jr

RobK wrote i don't buy music online. Mostly because most of the legit stuff is DRMed to the hilt. I susoect that the supplier of the music does keep some sort of record of your purchases that you could acess if you needed to.

The trend is now to DRM-less... Not punting eMusic, well actually I am, but they've got a great selection and good plans. That said, there is no way to prove their MP3's are legal or illegal (I think) other than their records which are easily accessible by buyers. There is a long way to go to sorting this out... If I buy a CD and rip it to MP3 so I can get more music on a disc for my car is it illegal? Depends on where you are...

Manfred-Klose

If I buy a CD and rip it to MP3 so I can get more music on a disc for my car is it illegal? Depends on where you are...

no its not illegal, in the case when it happen that you get pulled of to check for this, you just have to take all the original CD's with to the court to prove to them.

this happened to someone i know, altough he did not have all the originals he went and bought all of them before the court date.

.........hence sony, JVC, etc selling Mp3 players ?????

Surely something must be done, probably give a digital signature with the CD when you buy it.
where you register the mp3's to your name.

P.S: MP3's sound crap and compressed anyway!!!!

do a experiment, convert a cd to mp3 and wav and listen to the differrence.

RobK

Jack Flash Jr wrote If I buy a CD and rip it to MP3 so I can get more music on a disc for my car is it illegal? Depends on where you are...

Can't remember the exact answer, but I did ask a guy from SAFACT about that a few years ago. If I remember correctly, it is OK to rip it for your own personal use, provided you have the original, of course, and you don't distribute the ripped files in any way.
I might be wrong, though, but even so, I don't know of anyone who doesn't do it and I think SAFACT would rather go after the guys who are illegaly distributing copyrighted material. I haven't heard of anyone being taken to court for ripping the CDs to PC.

RobK

Manfred Klose wrote
If I buy a CD and rip it to MP3 so I can get more music on a disc for my car is it illegal? Depends on where you are...
no its not illegal, in the case when it happen that you get pulled of to check for this, you just have to take all the original CD's with to the court to prove to them.

this happened to someone i know, altough he did not have all the originals he went and bought all of them before the court date.

.........hence sony, JVC, etc selling Mp3 players ?????

Surely something must be done, probably give a digital signature with the CD when you buy it.
where you register the mp3's to your name.

P.S: MP3's sound crap and compressed anyway!!!!

do a experiment, convert a cd to mp3 and wav and listen to the differrence.

I remember the cops doing this a few years ago - randomly stopping guys and checking for copied CDs. More often than not, I think it was just them taking a bit of a chance as the couple of guys I heard of being stopped just had the CD confiscated on the spot without any further consequences.

mp3 are compressed, but I honestly don't think you'd really be able to tell the difference on a cheapie mp3 player of hi-fi. Besides, these days it's common for people to walk around shopping malls playing the music through their cellphone speaker - don't think the format makes a difference there - it all sounds crap ?

Oh, by-the-by - here's a lossless audio compressor, if you want high audio quality in a small file - http://www.monkeysaudio.com/ -

Manfred-Klose

mp3 are compressed, but I honestly don't think you'd really be able to tell the difference on a cheapie mp3 player of hi-fi

i am talking in terms of a sound engineer, where audio quality is important, if your ear gets to used to how mps sounds, then you mixes will miss some valuable frequencies.
.....and your are damaged for life.

in terms of a normal person listening on a cellphone or small hifi system, mp3's will do fine.

Oh, by-the-by - here's a lossless audio compressor, if you want high audio quality in a small file - http://www.monkeysaudio.com/ -

thanks i will go check it out.

Explorerlover

So what happens when your car gets stolen with the cd's that you have already ripped because at that time, you had a PC, but not a mp3 player in your car? :'(

BMU

Someone mentioned eMusic: no longer accessible to South Africans and many other nationalities. If you have a membership, think very carefully before closing it 'cos they won't let you back in.

I've been using them since 2002, great site. I'd periodically stop my membership, then rejoin a few months later etc. Only this last time that strategy backfired.

It's ironic, in this year of 2009 I'm back to buying mainly CDs for the first time in 7 years, Nuclear Blast's online music shop also closed and iTunes is obviously still verboten in SA...