The Great "Cheapest Legal Music Downloads" Hunt.

gobbyash

Found this. What a great song, what a great video. And it's FREE!!

White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

http://www.cissme.com/bgroup/rm/xl/white/video/xls162cd-01_rvh.ram


Regards

gobbyash


Downloaded from legitimate source

Stream: RealVideo Stream - Single Rate
File Name: xls162cd-01_rvh.rm
Last Modified: Sun, 05 Sep 2004 15:34:57 GMT
File Size: 7,415,871 Bytes
Title: 7 Nation Army
Author: The White Stripes
Copyright: 2003 XL Recordings under exclusive license from Third Man Recor
Duration: 04:01.486
Buffer Time: 3.7 seconds
Max Bit Rate: 249.0 Kbps
Allow Download: off
Allow Recording: off
Perfect Play: enabled

Stream: 0 Audio Stream
MIME type: audio/x-pn-realaudio

Max Stream Bit Rate: 44.1 Kbps

Audio Codec: 44 Kbps Stereo Music (RealAudio G2) 22050 Khz
Stream: 1 Video Stream
MIME type: video/x-pn-realvideo

Max Stream Bit Rate: 204.9 Kbps

Dimensions: 320x240

Encoded Frame Rate: 0.0 fps

Video Codec: 204.9 Kbps (RealVideo G2)
Player Compatibility: RealPlayer G2 or later

vinylmusic

I honestly regret having suggested that any users take advantage of Napster's free trial. Especially after the way I have just been treated


I opened a Napster Free Trial account on 14.10.05 and not long after decided that it was not for me. I tried to cancel and for some time after was not sure if my cancellation had gone through ok so I called theit help line to check
The man I spoke with assured me that it had and that I would not be charged. He didnt offer his name or give me a call log. I didnt think to ask for it. (a mistake I regret and wont make again)
Today I got my credit card bill and was astonished to find I had been charged £9.95 by Napster
I was very upset but felt sure that it could all be sorted out by a simple phone call
I called their helpline on 020 7365 1079 and explained my problem. The Lady I spoke to said she was unable to process refunds so she passed me over to Katie Hansen, her supervisor

Since a few days after opening the account until present I made absolutely no use of Napster and their records showed that. They said that they had no record of my call on 07.11.05 so they couldnt act on that.
I said that I have my phone record and it shows I called on that day and spoke with them for over 5 minutes
Then they suggested that I was making it up and my call could have been a customer help enquirey over a technical issue. However much I insisted they were adament that there would be no refund. Not even a goodwill gesture
I think under the circumstances I deserved the benefit of the doubt but again it was suggested I was making it all up
As far as I am concerned My £9.95 has been stolen from me
After this experience I advise anyone to stay well clear of Napster
If you must use their free trial then make sure you are on top of things when cancelling. Phone the helpline for verification and get the oporator's name and referwence number of the call. I would even go as far as asking for a verification email following the call


Quote:
Originally Posted by vinylmusic
One Month Free Trial with Napster

:j Thats unlimited downloads for one month :j .

http://www.napster.co.uk/
You have to use a credit or debit card to sign up but you wont be charged if you cancel before the end of the trial

I just signed up and all works fine, So far I have downloaded 5 albums without a hitch. They are saved as WAV files on my computer.

Watchout when trying to use their burn facility though
I tried to download a 22 track album directly to a CD and a message came uo to say my card would be charged 79p :eek: a track if I went ahead.

Theres nothing stopping you from burning to CD from your computer though using your own burner program

chrb

koru wrote:

This is just semantics. I can define stealing differently: taking something that is owned by someone else without paying for it. The mere fact that what you are taking is an intangible copy, rather than a tangible object, does not mean you can help yourself.

You can't just go around redefining words! And it's not just semantics - in a court of law (and in a dictionary) stealing is not the same as copyright infringment. Stealing is understood as "taking without owners consent" whereas copyright infringement is "creating a copy of a work without the copyright holders consent".

Here's an analogy to your argument. Imagine a lake in the country with no houses on its shores. You build your house there. Now, your house is worth a lot of money because it's the only house by the lake. One day someone comes along, sees your nice house, and decides to build one of his own, that looks exactly the same as yours. Well, not only has he copied your house, he's also devalued it, since now you no longer have the only house by the lake! Under your argument, he has somehow "stolen" your house from you, because he now has something that appears the same, and your house has fallen in value!?

wonderfullife_2

What about Newsgroups,I pay £5+ a month for 20gigs, added over to the next month if you don't use all your gigs in that month. I don't know how many albums that would get you, but it must be quite a few hundred for 20gigs. I mainly download audiobooks which I then put on my IRiver and listen to at work.
But as far as I know its not illegal, (but I'm sure someone will tell me if it is) and I wouldn't go anywhere else.

martinmarv

Sorry wonderfullife, but if you're downloading copyrighted music (or audio-books) that you don't own in any other audio format over the newsgroups, then it is illegal.
However, it's more difficult (and unusual) for the RIAA to trace, so you don't hear about it so much in the main-stream media.

Edit: It hasn't been mentioned in this forum, as far as I can see, that Amazon are offering some free tracks - check the post in the Freebies forum.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=122394
These are legal - I hope!

rygon

when it comes to music i am very tight (in the buying sense) due to the fact that a lot of singles/albums only have a few songs you like.
to get music for free is very easy if you are not bothered if its a famous name.
As i dj and have recently started to make my own songs i give these out for free so i can get feedback and also to get my name out and about...many others do that as well.
try going to forums which specialise in music, be it a rap forum or a forum about music software and im sure you will find something (check http://digitalvertigo.co.uk for rap. any cubase, reason, fruityloops, for other music and also myspace for unsigned bands)

koru

chrb wrote:

You can't just go around redefining words! And it's not just semantics - in a court of law (and in a dictionary) stealing is not the same as copyright infringment. Stealing is understood as "taking without owners consent" whereas copyright infringement is "creating a copy of a work without the copyright holders consent".

I didn't redefine it; I offered another equally valid definition. I merely pointed out that you had adopted just one narrow definition to conveniently suit your argument. I fully accept that the law under which this form of stealing would be prosecuted is not the same as burglary, pickpocketing, or theft. But that was not my point. What I was trying to point out is that copyright infringement is just another form of dishonestly taking what is not yours. The definition you gave of copyright infringement is just a description of the means by which the theft is carried out; it does not mean theft/stealing/dishonesty is not happening.

Your point is like quibbling that causing death by dangerous driving is not, in strict legal definition, the same as manslaughter. They may not be exactly the same, but causing death by dangerous driving is still killing someone. Just as downloading from someone who does not pay the copyright owner is still what I call stealing.

chrb wrote:

Here's an analogy to your argument. Imagine a lake in the country with no houses on its shores. You build your house there. Now, your house is worth a lot of money because it's the only house by the lake. One day someone comes along, sees your nice house, and decides to build one of his own, that looks exactly the same as yours. Well, not only has he copied your house, he's also devalued it, since now you no longer have the only house by the lake! Under your argument, he has somehow "stolen" your house from you, because he now has something that appears the same, and your house has fallen in value!?

Not a valid analogy. The distinction is that when artists and record companies make music and spend a fortune recording it and marketing it, they haven't just done this for their personal enjoyment. They have done it in the specific expectation of creating rights that they exclusively own and that they can commercially exploit to reward their efforts and talent. This is a right that society recognises by the concept of copyright, so that people are incentivised to continue to create good artistic works and to make them available publicly.

In contrast, the person building the house did not do so with an expectation of commercially exploiting the idea of building the house and if he/she did intend to exploit it they would have been aware that to do so they should buy the rest of the land round the lake. There is nothing unique about the idea of building a house by a lake. People have been building dwellings beside lakes for millenia, so being the first to build at a particular lake hardly entitles you to expect that no-one else can do the same. Other people would, eventually, have decided to build at that lake, because there is nothing special about the idea.

In contrast, if The Beatles had not created Sgt Pepper, no-one else would ever have created it, no matter how long people had continued to make music.

Bert_Anderson

I've not tried this service but I spend most of my time overseas and get the advantage of lots of great deals over in the USA.

One of the cheapest sites I've heard of is http://www.allofmp3.com/ which is generally well rated.

I would not pay for an mp3 personally but if you want to do it cheaply then check it out

I'd also suggest Yahoo as an option (I can do it with a US CC) but it's not something I'd be considering - even if I'm not an iPod fanboy!

Fran

Bert_Anderson wrote:

I've not tried this service but I spend most of my time overseas and get the advantage of lots of great deals over in the USA.

One of the cheapest sites I've heard of is .......

Bert I've reported your post (we are not allowed to discuss sites like that one because of it still being a grey area, see Forum Rules - Reply 13).

tmb2000

Think they've been recommended by Which now?