3 ms·

Oh dear. I can see the open-source and pirate communities coming down on these guys like a ton of bricks. I wouldn't be surprised to see a CDDB-style distribute

by dtf 16y ago

Oh dear. I can see the open-source and pirate communities coming down on these guys like a ton of bricks. I wouldn't be surprised to see a CDDB-style distributed database and server and accompanying mobile apps up by the end of next week. Shazam's CTO may well have been better off turning a blind eye. It's got all the elements hackers love: software patents, an underdog, free speech and an interesting technical problem.

jakevoytko 16y ago
I doubt anything will happen. Stories with similar elements don't usually end with an underdog victory [1]. If the software was already released, people could create "I'm mirroring the Shazam code, come and get me Shazam!" blog posts. The news cycle would have been well-fed, and might have generated enough hype to cause the Shazam CTO to learn to leave the issue untouched. However, now someone must develop the code. It'll take time. When it is done there will only be passing interest in the whole issue. This is interesting enough that it'll get some action on blogs over the next week, but I don't see this becoming a long-term win for the original author. Just Shazam and the blogs. [1] One example is "How I Got Sued by Facebook". http://petewarden.typepad.com/searchbrowser/2010/04/how-i-got-sued-by-facebook.html http://petewarden.typepad.com/searchbrowser/2010/04/how-i-go... . It combines elements hackers love: the rights to your information, an underdog, free speech, and an interesting technical problem (indexing all of Facebook). But no public databases of Facebook user data sprung up as a result.
- weirdwonka 16y ago
  The reason for that is that people who have capabilities of doing that know that its not a good thing. The data can be used for re identification attacks against user privacy.
sh1mmer 16y ago
Hasn't MusicBrainz.org being doing this in the Open Source for a long time? At least longer than I personally remember knowing about Shazam at all. All of their code is some variant of GPL.
- Jun8 16y ago
  AFAIK, MusicBrainz just relies on metadata associated with a music file and its length. It doesn't actually derive an audio fingerprint from the music, like Shazam does.
DanielRibeiro 16y ago
Alistair Cockburn (agile authority and creator of Crystal methodologies) comented about this on twitter ( http://twitter.com/TotherAlistair/status/18053308892 http://twitter.com/TotherAlistair/status/18053308892 ): Simply putting Shazam code on a website wouldn't be patent infringement (AFAIK) because the patent itself does that and is public reading.

by dtf 16y ago

jakevoytko 16y ago

I doubt anything will happen. Stories with similar elements don't usually end with an underdog victory [1]. If the software was already released, people could create "I'm mirroring the Shazam code, come and get me Shazam!" blog posts. The news cycle would have been well-fed, and might have generated enough hype to cause the Shazam CTO to learn to leave the issue untouched. However, now someone must develop the code. It'll take time. When it is done there will only be passing interest in the whole issue. This is interesting enough that it'll get some action on blogs over the next week, but I don't see this becoming a long-term win for the original author. Just Shazam and the blogs. [1] One example is "How I Got Sued by Facebook". http://petewarden.typepad.com/searchbrowser/2010/04/how-i-got-sued-by-facebook.html http://petewarden.typepad.com/searchbrowser/2010/04/how-i-go... . It combines elements hackers love: the rights to your information, an underdog, free speech, and an interesting technical problem (indexing all of Facebook). But no public databases of Facebook user data sprung up as a result.

weirdwonka 16y ago
The reason for that is that people who have capabilities of doing that know that its not a good thing. The data can be used for re identification attacks against user privacy.

sh1mmer 16y ago

Hasn't MusicBrainz.org being doing this in the Open Source for a long time? At least longer than I personally remember knowing about Shazam at all. All of their code is some variant of GPL.

Jun8 16y ago
AFAIK, MusicBrainz just relies on metadata associated with a music file and its length. It doesn't actually derive an audio fingerprint from the music, like Shazam does.

DanielRibeiro 16y ago

Alistair Cockburn (agile authority and creator of Crystal methodologies) comented about this on twitter ( http://twitter.com/TotherAlistair/status/18053308892 http://twitter.com/TotherAlistair/status/18053308892 ): Simply putting Shazam code on a website wouldn't be patent infringement (AFAIK) because the patent itself does that and is public reading.