3 ms·
Because there's no reliable way to identify which files were pirated and which were legitimately obtained from non-iTunes sources. The files all look the same,
by ryusage 15y ago
Because there's no reliable way to identify which files were pirated and which were legitimately obtained from non-iTunes sources. The files all look the same, for the most part.
I guess some do have tags that say who ripped them, which would certainly be a tip off. Even then, though, I'm not sure how easily you could automate it to differentiate between tags that indicate piracy and tags that do not.
- kenjackson 15y agoThe RIAA could actually now start to seed files that are pirated. Just populate the world with them, and sit on them for years. It's their nuclear option if nothing works out, they then have all of the MusicMatch data coupled with their fingerprints that uniquely indicate pirated music.
- kemayo 15y agoYou could hash the files and say that 50,000 people all had an identical mp3 of a track. Given tagging, subtle differences between CD drives, and the lossy encoding process it'd be fairly probable that they all got it from the same place. Of course, that's not the same thing as proving in each case that they really did pirate it, but it'd be a start as a way of building a list of people to look at.
- hyperbovine 15y agoI have no qualms about downloading an MP3 of a track that I already physically own but am too lazy to unearth and rip. Hope they'll take that into account.
- kemayo 15y agoEthically I agree, and I think that most other people would as well. However... I'd suspect it's still illegal, especially if you used bittorrent and thus gave copies out to other people.
- isleyaardvark 15y agoDo people think it's likely that Apple would implement such a system? That would take a certain amount of coordination with the RIAA and engineering effort on Apple's part to... screw over their paying customers. I don't think it's likely. Nor does Apple have any need to keep the original data on file. They make a match, that's it, job's done.
- kemayo 15y agoI think it's pretty unlikely. But the conversation had gotten around to "how would they even do that???", so that's what I answered. :)