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Back in ye olde days, we had this thing called "radio". In wonderful FM quality, it would broadcast music. Over a week, just about ever bit of current music. We
by alan_cx 14y ago
Back in ye olde days, we had this thing called "radio". In wonderful FM quality, it would broadcast music. Over a week, just about ever bit of current music. We old folk also has a device known as a "tape cassette recorder". (look it up young people) Now, some naughty people worked out that you could take the output of the radio and connect it to the input of the tape recorder, and record what was playing on the radio. Wait for the weekly top 40 (or whatever) show, and 2hrs later, you've got the top 40 singles. With decent kit, we could get very good quality recordings, and with clever use of the record levels the DJ, etc could be eliminated. Now, some clever people came up with the idea of making a radio that also had a tape cassette recorder built in. This machine had one single use. It made recording off the radio trivial.
So, back to 2012, what is the difference between manufacturers making radio cassette recorders for the exclusive purpose of ripping audio from the radio, and what this site does? Youtube basically broadcasts like radio, all be it on demand, and this site is basically a cassette recorder. Also, does any one remember being hunted down by their local radio station for pirating?
- jlarocco 14y agoI don't think that analogy holds because the "recording" is being done by a third party service. I think a better analogy would be a business where you called and requested they record songs X, Y, and Z off of the radio and send you the cassette. I'm pretty sure a service like that would have been shut down in "ye olde days". A tape recorder would be more like using clive and ffmpeg to strip the audio yourself. As far as I know, clive and similar tools have never been hassled by YouTube/Google.
- Dylan16807 14y agoWhy not contract out recording? The cloud dvr case came out fully in favor of it, as long as recordings were per-customer.
- icebraining 14y agoRecording by a third-party is exactly what Cablevision does with their "remote storage digital video recorder (RS-DVR)" service and they won in court: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_DVR#Cablevision_litigation_in_the_U.S http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_DVR#Cablevision_litigat....
- baddox 14y agoThere is no difference. The content distributors fought tooth and nail against new distribution mechanisms 50 years just like they fight tooth and nail against new distribution mechanisms today.
- derleth 14y agoAnother quote from the old days: "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." -- Jack Valenti
- Terretta 14y agoIs watching a YouTube video like tuning into a public broadcast, or controlling a private performance? The licensing of these is very different, which, for example, explains much of the rigamarole around Pandora's UI.