SoundCloud pirates? Is nothing safe?

[VanderBoegh]

So Andy Gabrys just posted something in his latest "Success Story" post about SoundCloud, which rang an alarm bell for me. Because just the other day I checked out my SoundCloud stats and noticed something interesting in the column that shows where your traffic is coming from.

Nearly all were direct from my SoundCloud profile or my website, but one of them was weird, so I clicked on it (as far as I know, there's no virus here, but don't download anything just in case!):

http://lyricsmp3skull.info/download/402 ... bf392.html

I didn't recognize the "Lyrics mp3 Skull" website, but when I clicked on the link, there was one of my tracks, and it was auto-playing when I loaded up the website. Complete with the picture I used for this track on SoundCloud. For the life of me, I can't figure out what this website is or who runs it (it says "Damn Lyrics" at the top of the page, and seems to be nothing more than a pirate site), but they've clearly swiped my music. From SoundCloud. And I don't have downloads enabled, which means whoever is behind this actually used some software to rip the track.

What's a fella to do?!?!?! Probably nothing, but it sure prompts me to be more cautious with what I post there.

Just echoing Andy's warning, and reminding you all that nothing is safe. Not even a silly urban comedy instrumental track, apparently.

~~Matt

[sabalsounds]

This is very disheartening Matt but it's been happening for a long time. I would assume private sounds are susceptible as well when the hackers figure out how to get past soundcloud security.

[sansharbour]

Matt

LesSampou mentioned that she got ripped off by some company, just took it, no notice to her.
That's just shabby all round.
We are posting on Soundcloud thinking it's solid and secure, BUT being digital well, and people have the tools and the inclination ........

Hope this doesn't become a huge issue.

Don

[Len911]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015 ... -mp3skull/


Evidently it's a "song linking site", so it is only providing your soundcloud link. If the soundcloud link is public, I don't think you could do much, however if it was private, and say a friend posted your song somewhere, illegally??, then mp3skull could grab the link. You don't download songs from them, all you get is a web address.

Technically they are not stealing anything, I believe the argument is that they make it easier for songs to be stolen? sort of like a gun doesn't rob a bank, it just makes a bank easier to rob by a person. It's like suing the gun manufacturer for facilitating crime. Perhaps if they couldn't ever catch the bank robbers they would sue the gun manufacturers, but it's probably easier to catch the robbers for now,lol!

[RockChild56]

Hmm This IS interesting,
I went to the site and searched My SC name (RockChild56) and my name (E J Bell) and found songs of mine on both searches.
Both available for Download on the site.
The songs that are there had been "Re Posted" by a SC user when I first uploaded them, and I also saw them on their SC page.
It seems they do 1000's of them.

I don't know whether to be confused, concerned, flattered or Pissed.

[andygabrys]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015 ... -mp3skull/


Evidently it's a "song linking site", so it is only providing your soundcloud link. If the soundcloud link is public, I don't think you could do much, however if it was private, and say a friend posted your song somewhere, illegally??, then mp3skull could grab the link. You don't download songs from them, all you get is a web address.

Technically they are not stealing anything, I believe the argument is that they make it easier for songs to be stolen? sort of like a gun doesn't rob a bank, it just makes a bank easier to rob by a person. It's like suing the gun manufacturer for facilitating crime. Perhaps if they couldn't ever catch the bank robbers they would sue the gun manufacturers, but it's probably easier to catch the robbers for now,lol!

while that might be true technically - in practice they provide download links directly from their site for all the media that they link to. People in general can't help themselves when they see something free - just look at the snack display at the local supermarket. And the fact they say that you need to "delete the file after listening" is some bull$%&^ - as downloading the file is illegal in this situation anyways.

so that right there is not playing fair. They probably make ad revenue off the various banners and things that are on the site. So the presence of the site it a money making endeavor, and they are using music illegally.

if we wanted our music to be downloaded, then we could have enabled the download button on Soundcloud itself.

nobody seems to have immunity from this - you can google and find out who pirated Hans Zimmers music as well and sold it as their own. Everybody is out to make a quick buck.

Anyways - that is behind all that I was saying in that other post. If I create music exclusively for some publishers, its not really a great thing if it ends up here there and everywhere. I understand the need to have a portfolio of tracks to get more work but...........

[andygabrys]

Matt

LesSampou mentioned that she got ripped off by some company, just took it, no notice to her.
That's just shabby all round.
We are posting on Soundcloud thinking it's solid and secure, BUT being digital well, and people have the tools and the inclination ........

Hope this doesn't become a huge issue.

Don

that IMO is a slightly different issue Don.

its a well know maxim in this industry that "its better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission". Kanye West was just saying that the other day as a matter of fact. Hilarious.

Well what that basically means is people know if they ask then they will have to have a discussion where somebody rightfully asks for money for their music. Its easier to not have that conversation. And lawyers fees being what they are, you would have to be out about $75k before it would be worth it to have a copyright suit - from some research i did on the subject. Its one reason why copyrighting your music is kind of folly - production music anyways.

And most people would charge what for the music in that video? Not that much. Probably not thousands. I bet it would be hundreds.

it seems like the soundcloud pirates are just in it for free music. The video producer knows enough to copyright the video, and I am guessing he knows full well what he was doing was not cool. He probably would not be doing a spot for Redbull if he had no experience.

double shameful if he was actually paid by Redbull for the spot. C'mon Redbull has got to have the funds to pay for the song.

anyways.......

[Kolstad]

No cool at all!

They are probably using your music to get visitors to click on commercial banners, which generates income through Google.
May be all sorts of illegal moneymaking scemes, done by a teenager or to support criminal or terrorist activity.

Others have had music ending up on a server in some odd country, where copyright laws couldn't touch them.

Nothing is really safe online.

PS. DAMMIT 4 of my tracks is on there too!!

Maybe a solution could be to put in an audio track like Kelvin Tan does with his stuff on SC. Example: https://soundcloud.com/kostar8/throne-o ... ko-preview

[kclements]

Watermarking is an extra step, albeit a pretty easy one once you have it set up. I may start doing that with my SC pieces.

Andy: have you ever checked these sites for your exclusive stuff? If they can get it from sound cloud, I wonder if they can pull it from the exclusive libraries that have their catalogs online too? A lot of libraries have public music players on their sites. Couldn't they just capture it from them as well?

Cheers
kc

[Len911]

Nobody is downloading anything but the link. If you choose to publicly display your soundcloud music, it's public, not downloadable unless you enable that feature. It's no different than if you post a soundcloud link here, unless it's a private link. These folks aren't downloading the song, they are downloading the link to your song, it's like a bookmark.

Is there a difference? Not really imo, but if someone provides a public link and I can be sued for clicking on it and listening, that's a little ridiculous imo.

If piracy is posting links to webpages, I've probably inadvertently pirated,lol!

The pirate is the host. So if the host is Soundcloud... however, if you publicly posted on soundcloud....

It would be like uploading your video to youtube for public viewing, and then suing anyone who "shares" the link to your video.

There's probably businesses whom people pay to publicize their music,lol!