Pirates pee on Amazon's MP3 parade
Hijack MP3 announcement
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Amazon.co.uk yesterday trumpeted the launch of its MP3 download service, but a group of upstart coders chose the same day to blow their own horn about a Firefox plugin linking the e-tailer's service to The Pirate Bay.
The Amazon service is flogging albums from £3 and individual songs from 59p. However, the 'Pirates of the Amazon' extension, also launched yesterday, lets you browse Amazon's music selection and then download the songs for free, or at least for the cost of an internet connection.
The extension was in fact created quite separately. “We are not affiliated with The Pirate Bay, and do not host or even link to any illegal content,” the creators write.
“This artistic project addresses the topic of current media distribution models vs. current culture and technical possibilities,” the creators told TorrentFreak.
The plug-in claims to work across Amazon's products, not just the MP3s. The site is currently down, or "The Ship was hit. We're offline" as the site puts it.
With the add-on installed any Amazon page will include a "download 4 free" button.
Amazon.co.uk is providing 3 million songs, free of Digital Rights Management - so they can be moved to any device once you've paid for them. Have a look yourself here.
The Pirate Bay is now five years old and claims 25 million peers - it recently applied for entry to the Guinness Book of World Records. ®
COMMENTS
re: Let's take a look...
And even worse, the used version of the CD NONE of the money goes to the artist!
OMG!!!!!
@Sean Baggaley
"I love the architectural ouvré of Nash and his contemporaries -- you'll see examples all over London. It has wonderful aesthetics. Does this mean I should be allowed to live in any of their houses for free?"
No, but you CAN build a house that looks EXACTLY THE SAME. Maybe from cheaper materials and in a less desirable area.
That's what an MP3 copy IS.
And as Dan said: what about the estate of Hans Christian Anderson or Charles Dickens (hell, Mozart/Handel/Lizt and Shakespear himself to cover most of Art), we don't take over dead people's houses unless we BUY and then own them and they become OUR house.
Now show me the receipt that says you bought any rights to any of their works.
Show me ANYONE who has bought the rights to the works from the descendant of one of those people and so they now own it.
They don't?
Then either
a) Copyright ("Art" as you put it) isn't property
b) You're all trespassers and should be jailed
"small, independent music labels who can't sell either physical media, OR downloads."
And I can't sell buggy whips or house cardigans (cardigans that fit over the house).
should the government step in to make sure?
Now what this label CAN do is help promotion of the people who pay them. They can produce the professional looking CD's and other merchandise for the bands that want to pay them to sort the details out.
If they don't want to do that, why should the government help them out? They don't help ME.
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