The RipFactory launches

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › The RipFactory launches

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79250 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#18413 9-Jan-2008 21:11

I've heard of a similar service in the U.S. and when I was told about this here in New Zealand I had some questions - mainly because "format shift" not being legal in this country. It seem the guys at the RipFactory solved this problem by paying license fees when transferring your CDs.

You basically send your discs to The RipFactory and they transfer to a DVD, NAS or mp3 player for you... Sounds good - and it looks like it comes from the guys that distribute the Sonos music system here in New Zealand.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#103887 9-Jan-2008 21:25

I still find it ironic that providing you're willing to pay additional $$ to the music companies format shifting is suddenly OK. It was only a few weeks ago that the RIAA reemphasised that format shifting your music is theft.

Our new copyright laws are a joke and obsolete before they've even in place.

steve98

1395 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#104342 12-Jan-2008 09:21

I can't believe that there is much of a market for this business. Seems to me that the demographic of people who are most likely to want their CD collection on an MP3 player are the same people who are most likely to be perfectly capable of doing it themselves. Plus they have a minimum order of 50 CDs, so it's not like they are trying to target the mums and dads out there who have a few CDs and an iPod Nano and can't figure out how to get their modest collection onto the thing.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79250 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#104343 12-Jan-2008 09:32

I think there's a market. Many houses have media servers these days and some people need a way to transfer their CD for backup. This is also the kind of people who have no time to waste spending 10 minutes per CD - they just want the thing done.

For example when Microsoft launched Windows Vista we all visited a four story house here in Wellington with offices and residential parts - a media server in the basement was providing content for the whole place and they had a couple of ReadyNAS with a few terabytes around. I assure you they were not the kind of people who would spend their time ripping CDs.

Of course John Doe with 100 CDs and an iPod and a lot of time to spare will not use the service. But there's a market for it.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#104347 12-Jan-2008 10:03

I'm be very interested to hear from PPNZ and find out where the general public stands at present. Format shifting is illegal in NZ and the recording industry had very strong feelings towards lagalising format shifting until they had a change of heart and decided that in some circumstances format shifting would be legal under the new copyright laws but they reserved the right to revoke that status for an individual work at any time. Ripping certain CD's also required bypassing DRM on CD's which raises yet more legal issues.

I'm not trying to knock the guys behind RipFactory in anyway and think they have launched a novel business. I'm just very interested as to why format shifting seems to suddenly legal providing you're topping up the coffers of the bloated music industry and pay them royalties when at present the law as it stands says format shifting is illegal. It's a bit like being able to buy a licence from the Police to speed in your car which will exempt you from speed limits.

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#105603 18-Jan-2008 21:57

So if they are able to pay a licence for the privalage of a digital copy off a CD which would otherwise be an unlicensed copy, why can I now pay the same fees to legitamize my p2p downloads and other unlicensed copys?

Richard rich.ms

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#105630 19-Jan-2008 06:47

richms: So if they are able to pay a licence for the privalage of a digital copy off a CD which would otherwise be an unlicensed copy, why can I now pay the same fees to legitamize my p2p downloads and other unlicensed copys?

Good question.

One can only assume that if you send PPNZ a cheque for a similair value that it costs to use Rip Factory then any illegal P2P music downloads should now be legal! :-)

geekiegeek

2513 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#105632 19-Jan-2008 07:00

After transferring 400+ CD's to mp3 on my media PC I can see a market for this. It is a long and tedious task.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

bazzer

3438 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#105742 20-Jan-2008 01:02

sbiddle:
richms: So if they are able to pay a licence for the privalage of a digital copy off a CD which would otherwise be an unlicensed copy, why can I now pay the same fees to legitamize my p2p downloads and other unlicensed copys?

Good question.

One can only assume that if you send PPNZ a cheque for a similair value that it costs to use Rip Factory then any illegal P2P music downloads should now be legal! :-)

Maybe, but only if you own the original CDs, obviously.

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#105747 20-Jan-2008 02:38

Wait, so despite ripfactory paying all this cash to the copyright mafia, you have to retain the CDs as well? So your no better off? WTF?! I thought that what you were paying for was the right to get a seperate digital copy so you could then offload your CDs to real groovy or sell them on trademe.

It rianz or whoever expects money for this they have to be kidding themselves.

I would actually pay a small amount to be able to legally keep a copy (lossless and no drm of cource) of any CDs that I own if I thought it would go to help the artists of the items I am keeping (not that crap shared pool that PPNZ do with their takings) - but this..

Sod off is all I can say to them.

Richard rich.ms

bazzer

3438 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#105863 20-Jan-2008 20:36

richms: Wait, so despite ripfactory paying all this cash to the copyright mafia, you have to retain the CDs as well? So your no better off? WTF?! I thought that what you were paying for was the right to get a seperate digital copy so you could then offload your CDs to real groovy or sell them on trademe.

Well, I think that really what you're paying for is for them to rip and catalog it for you, a process that (by their estimation) will take 10 minutes per disc. Is your time worth more than $1.69 x 6 ~= $10/hr (i.e. less than minimum wage)?

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#105868 20-Jan-2008 21:56

Except you dont sit there doing nothing when you are ripping your cds, you pop one in, let it get stuff from free db and then rip.

No assurances their rips will be bit accurate, and the thoughts of watermarking worry me since it goes against the point of a lossless rip off a cd.

Richard rich.ms

euanandrews

1528 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#105869 20-Jan-2008 22:00

This idea is like an honesty box...

People can do it for free, and 99% do, but if you want to feel good about yourself, pay these guys.

bazzer

3438 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#105872 20-Jan-2008 22:24

richms: Except you dont sit there doing nothing when you are ripping your cds, you pop one in, let it get stuff from free db and then rip.

Fair enough. No one's making you use it, but I'd say there's a market for it. I mean there aren't many things you can get done in between swapping discs and I'd say there are issues with the quality of data/cover art from Free DB etc. But it's your CD collection, do what you want. I just don't really think it's fair to judge the service as something that it's not trying to be.

richms: No assurances their rips will be bit accurate, and the thoughts of watermarking worry me since it goes against the point of a lossless rip off a cd.

I agree with you here, which is ultimately why I decided against using the service (even though it was tempting to finally get my collection archived). I mean, how do you watermark a lossless file?

TheBartender: This idea is like an honesty box...
People can do it for free, and 99% do, but if you want to feel good about yourself, pay these guys.

Not really. I don't think RIANZ care that much if you rip your own CDs (they officially might say they do, if they really did they could easily do something about it). So I don't think they're doing it to try and legitimise ripping. It's a service for people without the time or skill to rip their own CDs. I mean ripping your 800 CD collection in about a day? It'll probably take me all year to do it...