Unzipped: Audiogallaxy Blocks Zip Files
 

By NEIL STRAUSS, NYT

Audiogalaxy, a free music-sharing software and Internet site where MP3 files of songs are exchanged, was once the center of a small subculture of music fans who traded zip files of entire albums as well. These files packaged every song on a CD, plus images from the artwork, into a single convenient, easy-to-download file. Because Audiogalaxy was created only for the transfer of MP3 songs, these elaborate zip files were disguised by users to look like MP3 files to computers.

But after this column on Feb. 25 detailed this practice, Audiogalaxy disabled the word "zip" from its search engine. Where previously searching for files with the word zip in them turned up thousands of full albums, now the search turns up nothing, not even song titles with the actual word zip in them.

What happened? Michael Merhej, a spokesman for Audiogalaxy, said that there was such a large amount of traffic on the site and so many different things happening in the company that executives had been unaware of zip trading. Once company employees tried it for themselves, "we did block the word zip," he said.

"The purpose of Audiogalaxy is not to download complete albums that you can go buy," he added. "The system is not made to handle this, but people contrive things to make it work."

Though the word zip is now blocked in the Audiogalaxy search engine, those zip files of entire albums still exist. One just has to find a different word to use to search for them or try the Usenet, where a whole news group is dedicated to full album downloads

Re: Unzipped: Audiogallaxy Blocks Zip Files
 

:o

theflaco

Audiogalaxy is an extraordinary company. At first I thought the notion that Michael was unaware of zip traffic was ludicrous, as it was extensively discussed on the AG website's general forum where he sometimes posts himself.

On the other hand, Audiogalaxy recently released an "upgrade" - a spyware upgrade, in effect - and today the forum contains a long thread in which an Audiogalaxy user recommends that other users visit her website to download a spyware-free version of the upgrade.

What other company would tolerate such behaviour on their own website?

Marius

Upgrade to spyware versions...What's going on with todays p2p apps??:RE:

Par for the Course?
 

Quote Oscar...
Upgrade to spyware versions...What's going on with todays p2p apps??

Looks like the inevitable "bead Counters" gotten in control, first the FUN, then the Grief (Napster) now the realisation, that there is real money to be made...


Called GREED my friend, and it runs the World... Remember Corruption is like gravity, everything that is "Up Top" falls progessively to the lowest level..

Peer -2-Peer was once considered as the lowest of the low, now look at its high aspirations?

If the RIAA & the other (picture lot) want to kill sharing, what better way than buying in on some of the whiz-kids, they are only too willing to crap on the rest of us, for enough bucks!

Snark.. :m:

agreed that audiogalaxy is a weird company.

this zip file thing seems to be similar to the "banned song workaround".... AG was cool with it until it got too much press.

In an age when other P2P app companies try to fling their hands up at what their users are doing, AG shows that they can actively control what gets traded by banning certain file names and not others. This puts them into an eventual legal shutdown that they clearly can't stop.

So how are they still going? Why are they still going? Why haven't they gotten sued yet?

Mind you, I love that community; they have the best collection of music I've ever seen from any P2P program. I just shake my head at what the hell their goals are and why the RIAA hasn't hit them yet.

Actually, the RIAA did instigate legal proceedings against Audiogalaxy last Autumn. That was when they suddenly made a serious attempt at blocking certain songs. Before that, almost nothing was blocked at all.

As you say, it's still p to peerless when it comes to rare material. Best of all, hardly any obscure acts are blocked. Even well known older acts like Frank Zappa have escaped blocking. This is great if your taste runs to 70s stuff and little known contemporary artists.

The RIAA has always had a strange attitude towards Audiogalaxy. Only a few weeks before the lawsuit they were favourably contrasting AG with Napster, saying that it wasn't the same sort of program at all. As AG automated music piracy virtually singlehandedly, that seemed to me a very odd thing to say. With Napster, you had to hover over every download. With AG you could go out for the evening and return to a folder full of new MP3s.

I haven't heard anything about the progress of the RIAAs litigation against AG. I love the community too and I'll be very sad indeed if they get shut down.

Personally, I believe that the ISPs are the weak link in the file-sharing chain. At present, it makes good financial sense for them to tolerate the sharing of copyright material. If the RIAA begin targetting them with expensive-to-defend lawsuits, that may change.

That will be a black day for us all. :(

Marius