The Null Device

Sony buys Gracenote

Remember Gracenote, the firm that bought the user-contributed CDDB database and locked it up, locking open-source clients out of it? Well, they've just been bought by Sony. I wonder what this will mean: with Sony BMG being a pillar of the RIAA, will owning a database which receives a notification every time somebody rips a CD be a useful weapon in the War On Copying? And will Apple keep using Gracenote for iTunes now that it's controlled by a rival?

There are 2 comments on "Sony buys Gracenote":

Posted by: toby

Mon Apr 28 03:22:04 2008

It's little more than a database of the first time anyone plays a CD on their computer. It'll be an interesting set of statistics about what's popular, and not much more. I like to live in hope that it will teach Sony that we're not all interested in Britney and Korn, but I doubt that'll happen.

Posted by: acb
http://dev.null.org/acb/
Mon Apr 28 10:03:58 2008

Given that it's primarily used as a copying tool, and ripping CDs is, in some jurisdictions, a crime, I wonder whether a CDDB hit could be used to obtain a search warrant in those jurisdictions.

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