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iTunes Sharing at Colleges

If sharing gets axed it will be because of users hacking iTunes to be able to d/l songs (just like what happend before when sharing was first introduced). All it takes is one d*ckhead to spoil it for everyone.


Originally posted by jxyama
i really hope RIAA will stay out of this and not squash it. they really need to get on with reality - digital music is here to stay. i don't condone piracy, but they need to do their part to adopt and change their business model. selling music CDs at $15+ is not a viable model any more and they need to come to terms with it. i see DVD movies routinely being sold for lower prices than CDs... how can that be? i see CD-R's for sale at 10 cents a disc. how can that be?
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And not to hijack this thread, but...

Movies make money at theaters, from movie rentals, from TV deals, and from DVD/VHS sales. A label is much more dependent on CD sales to make money than a studio is on DVD sales. You aren't paying $15 for the physical media, you are paying $15 for the content of that media and all the associated costs related to content creation and distrubition.


Lethal
 
Originally posted by pgwalsh
It's my understanding that you can't download the music, so I don't see the problem? Even if someone develops a hack, Apple isn't offering the product as a download tool like Kazaa.

This is great for Apple. Maybe people will see how easy it is to use and look at other products by Apple. :cool:
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sorry. i'll clarify:)

from an aging business model's perspective, this feature canibalizes sales. Why would a Yale student buy a song for ¢99 when it's almost always available for free over the subnet? Additionally, college students and high school students have more "disposable" income than some other demographics, and it just may be that the RIAA was looking for a way to get this group to spend more money on music, not just stop downloading from Kaaza. I wasn't thinking that the RIAA would sue apple or itunes users; more like they'd request/demand removal of the shared libraries feature in 4.2.

That said, i agree with you. There is nothing wrong with this feature. It's a great way to discover new music, and it doesn't violate copyright laws any more than radio does.

In the digital market, the consumer truly runs the show. you need to make concessions to the consumer if you want their buck. the sharing feature seems to me to be a reasonable concession.
 
Not the only reason . .

What happend to iTunes 4 for Mac is a fact on the Windows version as we speak. Download MyTunes and you can download any song from anyone on your network. Not just play it, also download it into your own computer.

mod. edit - No piracy links.
 
Re: Not the only reason . .

Originally posted by F/reW/re
What happend to iTunes 4 for Mac is a fact on the Windows version as we speak. Download MyTunes and you can download any song from anyone on your network. Not just play it, also download it into your own computer.
Click to expand...


And so ends sharing via iTunes...


Lethal
 
Re: Not the only reason . .

Originally posted by F/reW/re
What happend to iTunes 4 for Mac is a fact on the Windows version as we speak. Download MyTunes and you can download any song from anyone on your network. Not just play it, also download it into your own computer.
Click to expand...

well, we have our d*ckhead, Lethal. :(
 
Re: Not the only reason . .

Originally posted by F/reW/re
What happend to iTunes 4 for Mac is a fact on the Windows version as we speak. Download MyTunes and you can download any song from anyone on your network. Not just play it, also download it into your own computer.
Click to expand...

Christ, how bout you edit your post and remove that link before the world goes up in flames.

As I was just going to mention, the only way to save networked songs is to use a 3rd party app., ahem. Figures a Windows user would create such a specific thing to work with iTunes. Oh, and 10 days after the release of it too.

So if this saving network crap blows out of proportion it would be nice to see that feature removed from Windows versions but still intact on the Mac. Serves them right.

BTW, I hope this kid gets the s**t smacked out of him by Apple and the RIAA.
 
Audio Hijack and Wiretap will allow you to record anything audio on the Mac, so there really is no way to prevent copying.
 
Originally posted by Tulse
Audio Hijack and Wiretap will allow you to record anything audio on the Mac, so there really is no way to prevent copying.
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True, but labeling a product to exclusively do just that, rip from iTunes networked libraries, is totally different. Everything has a purpose and this isn't for the good.
 
Originally posted by Tulse
Audio Hijack and Wiretap will allow you to record anything audio on the Mac, so there really is no way to prevent copying.
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Record a compressed audiofile sounds awful! Ripping will always be a fact either you do it digital or analog with your CD-player connected to audio inline on your computer.
 
Re: Nothing Wrong with Streaming

Originally posted by rodnarms
If I was a record executive I would not have a problem with this. Essentially the streamer is only accessing the file. They do not own it, they cannot transfer it to their iPod, they cannot burn a CD, they cannot use it in iLife. If you really like a song then you are going to spend the $.99 for the freedom to do what you want with it.

Actually this is a safe way to discover new music. Most people are not in college forever. When they leave they no longer have access to those massive playlists. They will still have to spend money.
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There are, in fact, ways to copy music from shared playlists on iTunes. I'm not going to say how, because I don't want to be labeled as starting (or ending) anything.

It's *not* completely safe from pirates. I use iTMS, but I have discovered a way to access and own someone's shared playlists. Please note I AM NOT A PIRATE and I legally buy all my music, but when I saw this shared feature on iTunes, I knew it was a little too good to be true. I did some looking around, and found that putting someone elses's files, in AAC or MP3 format is remarkably (and frighteningly) easy.

This worries me! Some dumb college kid will exploit this and bam, the RIAA b*tches will come down upon Apple and, quietly, we will lose our sharing capabilities.
 
Originally posted by F/reW/re
Record a compressed sounds awful! Sure, ripping will always be a fact either you do it digital or analog with your CD-player connected to your audio inline.
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No, sorry, there are ways to get those ripped tracks to sound great on iTunes, via AAC or MP3.
 
internet sharing...

apple should reintroduce the sharing across the internet as well. it was a great feature. yes people found out how to circumvent it, but those are the same people that already know how to get free mp3s. PLUS, the music bought from the itunes music store would not be stealable (well, one could copy the file, but it wouldn't play on an unautherized computer).

the fact is, people who want to steal music are going to steal music -- there's 100 different ways. even before computers and cdburner and the internet people were making tape copies. by stripping out features that "honest" people really enjoy and use, all the riaa and apple would be doing is upsetting their customers (not hurting theives). and all that will do is make more people sympathetic to the people stealing music.
 
Re: internet sharing...

Originally posted by segastyle
apple should reintroduce the sharing across the internet as well. it was a great feature. yes people found out how to circumvent it, but those are the same people that already know how to get free mp3s. PLUS, the music bought from the itunes music store would not be stealable (well, one could copy the file, but it wouldn't play on an unautherized computer).

the fact is, people who want to steal music are going to steal music -- there's 100 different ways. even before computers and cdburner and the internet people were making tape copies. by stripping out features that "honest" people really enjoy and use, all the riaa and apple would be doing is upsetting their customers (not hurting theives). and all that will do is make more people sympathetic to the people stealing music.
Click to expand...

Exactly. You've nipped it in the bud.

I just figure that those who are going to steal are going to get the less-than-perfect copies of songs, whereas we'll get high quality AAC songs with no downloading hassels.

:) :rolleyes: :D
 
I need to get more people in my dorm on iTunes. I currently have 2 users' playlists under my Shared Music list. Disappointing.
 
Here at JMU things are subnetted, so not everyone is on the same one, but there's enough, and there's been an explosion of playlists available in iTunes.

And yes, if the RIAA thinks they can completely stop digital theft of music, they're fooling themselves. It's always going to exist, and acting as the Music Gestapo isn't going to win them any friends. Keep enough features in place to keep the honest honest, try to stop the theives, but don't break your backs. The majority of users aren't smart enough to "hack" iTunes, and those that are will. That doesn't mean good features should be taken away.

But, of course, when has "fairness to the consumer" ever been part of the RIAA's mantra?

--Cless
 
So the ultimate question here is, is campus sharing as described a legal act? It seems to me that since it pops up to tell you that it is only for in home personal use or something like that, it seems that sharing over a college dorm network would violate some agreement and therefore illegal. Anyone with some knowledge in the field attest to the legality (or illegality) of this use for iTunes? I want to publicize this in a big way to a campus that knows not the light, but if this is illegal even in the smallest way I don't want to be trouble on campus for violating computer use policies (very strict here at Northwest Missouri State University.)

Also, roughly how much bandwidth does this consume, I do not want to bring the anal IT department down on me. (If you had to deal with a campus of 5000+ outdated Gateway WinTel boxes crawling Win2K you'd be anal too!)
 
legal!

This is absolutely legal...as long as you don't actually steal the music by copying it as our friends so generously demonstrated earlier...again, if you just LISTEN you're ok, if you POSSESS a file that you didn't buy, you are stealing.

How wise would it be for a company like apple to create and advertise a product that violates the recently clarified copyright laws?
 
If in fact it is perfectly legal, what is the best way to go about explaining the install and set-up process to a bunch of head in the mud Windows users (not that all Windows users are head-in-the-mud, but the vast majority of those at this campus are.)
 
iTunes has become popular at my work as well (I'm a Web person at a state university). We seem to get a broad cross-section of music; probably because we've got a mix of faculty, staff and grad students on our subnet. It's kind of funny to see what some people have on their playlists - white middle-class professors with album after album of rap, for instance. :)

One of my younger co-workers was going through my playlist, critiquing it song by song. Maybe this is turning into a huge sociology experiment.
 
It's still legal

Any streaming media is legal because it's just like someone broadcasting over your radio. Now if you record a broadcast song it's not same quality as say on the CD. This is the same with streaming audio. Yes, I can record it but the sound is downgraded from the compression...and if you want to make it into a MP3 or ACC file then it gets compressed again. Each time the file gets compressed it loses audio quality. The RIAA knew iTunes did this since 4 so if they wanted to say something they would said it a long time ago.

Now RIAA and Apple can go after the 3rd parties but I doubt it since the sound quality is just simiply not there.
 
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