Distribution mechanism (was Re: Broken again)

Johan Pouwelse (pouwelse nospam at pds.twi.tudelft.nl)
Thu, 16 Dec 1999 11:27:04 +0100 (MET)

> > My idea is to implement an option in my CDIndex/lyrics/subtitling
> > client program to upload the information to news:alt.music.lyrics
> > Storing several news messages is not illegal. The person that posts lyrics
> > of songs without permission is responsible.
> >
> > If we want to extend the music information of CDIndex with audio CD
> > covers, artist pictures, biographies, etc. we will need a system that puts
> > the responsibility at the submitter.
> Ahhh -- the plot thickens. If the data is not actually stored on the CD
> Index server than that changes the matter entirely. Can you give me
> some more details of how this will work?
For submission of information it is possible to use a browser, connect
directly to port 80, or use NNTP.

The submission news group can be an news:alt.binaries or
news:alt.music.info.xml in the future. All submitted information must be
in XML format with standard options for CDInfo, lyrics, music subtitling,
CD covers, artist bio's, etc.. This information can be stored in a news
cache and converted into the extended or standard cddb CDInfo SQL database
format.

When servers get a submission from a browser direcly, they broadcast this
new database entry on NNTP to synchonise all CDIndex servers of the world.

> > For the CDIndex server it must be possible to select in the config file if
> > you want to show only information that cddb carries, use also the extended
> > information, and to scan selected newsgroups for submissions.
> So some CDIndex servers will store the lyrics then, but not all of them
> will be required to do so?
Yep.
It has not been determined in a court of law that lyrics/CD covers in a
database is illegal, but I can imagine that www.cdindex.org will not carry
this information and run the risk of a court case.

In my country, The Netherlands, we have already a site that has lyrics
for 8500 songs with legal approval. (http://www.giga.nl/walter/gnsa/ in
dutch)
The construction is that you ask for a free personal account on the
server. For downloading lyrics you give your password. Giving
the lyrics to this individual is not seen as a illegal re-publication.
This construction falls within the 'fair-use' policy.
Perhaps I will implement the same construction for the Dutch CDIndex
server.

Johan.