Google Music

[Wyndru]

This weekend, my nephew told me that he has been uploading songs to google music. When I asked him if it was his purchased itunes collection, he said, no, it's his napster collection....basically he uploaded over 8000 illegally obtained music files to it.

I told him that there is probably a way for them to tell that the music is not legally purchased (I read an article a while back that they would use hash id's for known illegal files and just delete them). He is not convinced that this is possible.

Anyway, I don't want to be a preacher to the kid, but at the same time I'm worried about the possibilities that he could get in any kind of trouble doing this. The account is linked to his CC number, so there is no way to deny who it belongs to.

Does anyone here think that there is any possibility that Google would ever start releasing account info for known illegal music to the RIAA, which would in turn start handing out fines, or am I just being overly worried?

Since this thread involves conversation about pirated music, mods if you want to lock it up that's fine. I'm just curious what people think.

 

[lxskllr]

I don't think so. First off, I doubt Google cares that much, and secondly, the provenance of the music has too many variables. There's no way to prove his method of acquisition.

 

[Newbian]

He is not your kid so don't be that kind of a uncle.

Your job as a uncle is to be cool and it's up to his parents to mean to him.

 

[Wyndru]

He is not your kid so don't be that kind of a uncle.

Your job as a uncle is to be cool and it's up to his parents to mean to him.

Haha, yeah you are right. I don't want to be creepy uncle, drunk uncle or father figure uncle :awe:

I don't think so. First off, I doubt Google cares that much, and secondly, the provenance of the music has too many variables. There's no way to prove his method of acquisition.

True, I mean every time a file is ripped from a CD, using different software, it has to have a different bit makeup that would pretty much make every song out there very unique. I just thought they would have a way to see patterns.

I also found this:

Google has a variety of tools at its disposal to identify illegal files. Via a method known as digital music watermarking, record companies can encode files with a variety information, including when and where the song was purchased. If Google Music detects multiple copies of the same information, it can filter the files that contain it, preventing users from uploading the files. Conversely, Google could also be forced by record labels into only accepting music uploads that feature that sort of identifying information.

Not sure how true this is, or even how it would apply to songs ripped from a cd (unless the labels really do enforce the info to be in the files).

 

[Crono]

RIAA and others have always targeted individuals and groups distributing copyrighted files. People cloud hosting pirated music for themselves isn't a big priority takedown for them.

That said, I would try to convince him of the benefits of legitimizing his collection, at least over time. It's even easier now with services like Amazon offering CDs with digital downloads of their music. If he's just a high school kid with no job, though, it's a hard sell.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I think the way it works is that Google has basically already paid them off to provide you with higher quality versions of your uploads. Since they already ponied up the money your illegal version becomes legit as long as you use Google Play. To avoid rampant use of this as a way to upgrade and legalize decade old crap MP3's anything you upload only returns the original file to you and not the 320kbps version they let you stream.

 

[amdhunter]

Before you made this thread, there was 0 chance. Now that I've emailed a copy of this post to the RIAA Cyber Cop division, your nephew is going to a FPMITA prison for the rest of his years.

 

[Wyndru]

I think the way it works is that Google has basically already paid them off to provide you with higher quality versions of your uploads. Since they already ponied up the money your illegal version becomes legit as long as you use Google Play. To avoid rampant use of this as a way to upgrade and legalize decade old crap MP3's anything you upload only returns the original file to you and not the 320kbps version they let you stream.

That's interesting. I've heard of people using that paid itunes match service to do this.

FPMITA

What's the "P" for?

[EDIT] oh, nevermind urban dictionary helped me out.