Was engaging in a bit of navel gazing googling my track names to see if I'd got any attention (admit it we all do it) and found the entire contents of my soundcloud account available on freemp3x even though I've never enabled track downloads. I realised there were ways around it (i.e. soundflower into audacity) but I wasn't expecting to just see everything labelled and searchable. I'm not saying its Soundcloud's fault but ... wtf?

How in hell's name do I get this down or am I stuffed? I googled my mates' bands and it seems like everyone's stuff is there.

Sod this for a lark, how the hell am I ever supposed to get my music heard and still retain any control/eventually make any money?

Perhaps I'm just being naive but fuuuu. I mean I wouldn't mind so much but a lot of them are 'sketches' that I wouldn't even want being attributed back to me, half finished ideas I wanted to show to friends.

Ooooh I'm right peeved now.

Hi there

I've just had a look and my stuff is on there as well. As is everyone else big and small alike.
They appear to be Panamanian. They went live in September 2012. That's an awful lot of infringement in a short period of time. Not sure what anyone single agency is going to do about it. Doubt Soundcloud will be that bothered. Love the way the website has absolutely no contact details.

Shame really.

Hussein

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Hussein Boon: http://www.husseinboon.co.uk
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/hussein-boon

bro i know that feel.
honestly, for example, im australian and i have some of my works registered with APRA. which is a free music protection service. if this was to happen to me, id contact them and let them sort it out. cos thats definitely illegal as far as im concerned.
i found a guy on soundcloud whod been downloading my tunes and putting SHOCKING raps over the top. he recorded horrible quality laptop microphone freestyles over the top of about 4 of my tunes, and then i found him and asked him to at least give me production credits - to which he told me to go eff myself, accusing me of being greedy for attention etc etc and all this crap about not sharing music etc. i reminded him that i made the beats, reminded him that all i was asking for was production credits to maybe direct a bit of traffic to my page and to acknowledge the source of the tunes and that by the same token of what he was saying, he should agree with me. he refused and started trolling me.. so i emailed APRA about it and his account isnt on soundcloud anymore?
so i guess it worked.
get in touch with APRA if youre in the asia pacific region.. i dont know who governs this stuff in the uk or usa or if APRA operates there.
http://www.apra-amcos.com.au/

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www.soundcloud.com/skerrick

If you google 'freemp3x DMCA' you see at least one label has had a shot at getting the links taken down. Now that I've had half an hour to think about it I was naive to think it wouldn't get scraped, I mean youtube has and it's basically the same concept.

I just think it's worth knowing that 'enable downloads' or not your stuff *will* be available.

Bad rapping over the top? Ooh that would hurt. Cheers for the advice.

As soon as my band's album was released in download form it appeared on multiple illegal download sites. And there's nothing much you can do.

I've also had rough ideas stolen by one of these sites as well, from spiders crawling over my website, which I really do think is beyond the pale. The answer to that is to never have any rough ideas accessible on your website.

There are paid services which promise to get the illegal downloads removed, but I doubt they would have much success with the Russians, and anyway you'll probably end up spending more money than you'll save.

>Sod this for a lark, how the hell am I ever supposed to get my music heard and still retain any control/eventually make any money?

Have you been living on Mars for the last five years?

Yeh, that last bit was intended a bit tongue in cheek shall we say.

Hi there again

if you go on the site and initiate a download and then look at the URL you'll see that it's a direct link to the content on Soundcloud, not just taken from it. It's not a question of taking the content and seeding another network.

Hussein

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Hussein Boon: http://www.husseinboon.co.uk
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/hussein-boon

That's interesting, the more I think about it the more I think I was naive to think it would be any different.

Perhaps soundcloud could reject stream requests that have that site in the referrer header, even then there'd probably be a way round it.

If it's just linked then presumably I can just make the tracks private or take them down.

Hmmm, time for a clear out.

Edited by crx091081gb (31/01/13 12:44 AM)

ermagherd, 6 of my tunes are on there too! 4 are registered with APRA. time to crack the old knuckles and get my email writing cap on.

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www.soundcloud.com/skerrick

Just got this back from Soundcloud.

"Thanks for getting in touch. We understand your concerns, and share the same upset with regards to services like freemp3x.com. They're something we do not approve of and certainly don't condone.

Unfortunately it is very difficult to be fully secure against these services. We try to be as proactive as possible at blocking these sites where possible, and really appreciate all the help and support of our members who bring the services to our attention.

These tools are only able to download the transcoded streamable version though, which is 128 kbps — they never have access to the original, full quality uploads. These same kinds of tools can be found for any streaming media platform, including the biggest ones like YouTube.

We want to make SoundCloud the most secure place to keep your sounds, and so we are always working on ways of preventing such services. But it is hard to fully prevent them from setting up.

Let us know if you have any questions, or further concerns regarding this problem which we can help with.

Best regards,

Annelise"

So there you have it, uploader beware.

tried to report them to apra, they referred me to music rights australia. i reported the site to them, hopefully something happens about its removal from the interwubs..

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www.soundcloud.com/skerrick

Quote crx091081gb:

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If you google 'freemp3x DMCA' you see at least one label has had a shot at getting the links taken down. Now that I've had half an hour to think about it I was naive to think it wouldn't get scraped, I mean youtube has and it's basically the same concept.

I just think it's worth knowing that 'enable downloads' or not your stuff *will* be available.

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Despite being a pissy company, Youtube isn't a criminal organisation. This panamanian site is.

Quote crx091081gb:

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So there you have it, uploader beware.

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Soundcloud haven't done anything wrong. This is just the continuing evolution of bot based piracy.

BTW when I said "The answer to that is to never have any rough ideas accessible on your website" I mean never have them on your server anywhere in the public_html folder -- even if you think they're hidden from public view the spiders can find them, unless you have a password-protected directory.

Soundcloud could resolve this issue by users ticking a box to opt-in/out of streaming services. That would secure it instantly but would also mean that Soundcloud would lose a large sum of revenue. Not surprising really.

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Hussein Boon: http://www.husseinboon.co.uk
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/hussein-boon

Quote narcoman:

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Soundcloud haven't done anything wrong. This is just the continuing evolution of bot based piracy.

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yes, but they do expose their API to allow for app development/streaming services to piggyback etc. Same deal with YouTube and any other service that exposes it's backend (I know that statement demands a fitting riposte).

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Hussein Boon: http://www.husseinboon.co.uk
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/hussein-boon

Quote:

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Despite being a pissy company, Youtube isn't a criminal organisation. This panamanian site is.

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I wasn't claiming they were I was just saying that I was aware of content from youtube being regularly scraped (and have indeed written programs to do it myself).

Quote:

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Soundcloud haven't done anything wrong. This is just the continuing evolution of bot based piracy.

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Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply they were; I was just making the point that the official line seemed to be that there was little they could do about it.

Don't know if anyone else mentioned this... but if ya just want to share files with friends to listen to, best to use Dropbox, which is private. That way at least if your Soundcloud stuff does get ripped and copied it's not demos and rough mixes, but the actual stuff you want to be out there!

Once a song leaves your local drive, it's out there and you loose control, that's the world we're in I'm afraid.

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> you loose control, that's the world we're in I'm afraid.

Yes, a world where intelligent people can't spell 'lose'!

The thing that puzzles me about all of this, is why anyone would want to listen to a 128k mp3.

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Minke - Home Taping album :<a href="" target="_blank">http://minke.bandcamp.com/album/home-taping</a>

Has any confirmed if the songs are in Sets they still appear on this site

I have some songs that are not in sets, which appear, which will get deleted soon.

But the ones I have in sets do not appear.

No time to test properly at the moment

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Madman_Greg

Quote narcoman:

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Quote crx091081gb:

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If you google 'freemp3x DMCA' you see at least one label has had a shot at getting the links taken down. Now that I've had half an hour to think about it I was naive to think it wouldn't get scraped, I mean youtube has and it's basically the same concept.

I just think it's worth knowing that 'enable downloads' or not your stuff *will* be available.

---

Despite being a pissy company, Youtube isn't a criminal organisation. This panamanian site is.

---

Funny how Google manages to prevent there EVER being any p0rn on YouTube though, yet there's "just no way" it can prevent gazillions of infringing music, film and TV videos. Almost as if they didn't give a hoot and, indeed, their entire business model was actually to sell advertising off the back of infringing content. Almost...

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~~~ A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen as you are tossed with! www.feline1.co.uk ~~~

Quote Madman_Greg:

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Has any confirmed if the songs are in Sets they still appear on this site

I have some songs that are not in sets, which appear, which will get deleted soon.

But the ones I have in sets do not appear.

No time to test properly at the moment

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No does not work, this site does a real time lookup on soundcloud for the tracks you search on. So if they are public its going to display/play/transcode for download

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Madman_Greg

Quote GlynB:

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Once a song leaves your local drive, it's out there and you loose control, that's the world we're in I'm afraid.

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Yup!! Sadly.

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

Quote feline1:

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Funny how Google manages to prevent there EVER being any p0rn on YouTube though, yet there's "just no way" it can prevent gazillions of infringing music, film and TV videos. Almost as if they didn't give a hoot and, indeed, their entire business model was actually to sell advertising off the back of infringing content. Almost...

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How true...

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Strictly project and just for fun

Quote crx091081gb:

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Quote:

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Despite being a pissy company, Youtube isn't a criminal organisation. This panamanian site is.

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I wasn't claiming they were I was just saying that I was aware of content from youtube being regularly scraped (and have indeed written programs to do it myself).

Quote:

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Soundcloud haven't done anything wrong. This is just the continuing evolution of bot based piracy.

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Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply they were; I was just making the point that the official line seemed to be that there was little they could do about it.

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I know - but this website is a rogue one, so its unlikely they will listen to any take down notices or legal intent.

Sadly, anyone can audio-hijack any streaming audio source. The best you can do is send a takedown notice to the website telling them you're the owner of publishing and master rights to the following songs (list the actual links), and demanding that they take the links down in accordance with _____ (whatever your equivalent of the DMCA is here in the US).

Kerry

Quote Frisonic:

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Quote feline1:

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Funny how Google manages to prevent there EVER being any p0rn on YouTube though, yet there's "just no way" it can prevent gazillions of infringing music, film and TV videos. Almost as if they didn't give a hoot and, indeed, their entire business model was actually to sell advertising off the back of infringing content. Almost...

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How true...

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Good point, and obvious in hindsight . Obscene lyrics & p0rn soundtracks seems to be the way to go then...

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Not much in life worth running for. Or from.

Quote hollowsun:

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Quote GlynB:

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Once a song leaves your local drive, it's out there and you loose control, that's the world we're in I'm afraid.

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Yup!! Sadly.

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Yes I agree, and can't understand why anyone would put their music on the likes of SOundcloud and then get all precious about their music if it turns up somewhere else. The internet has allowed musicians to get a global audience - but as they say "Be careful what you wish for!"

Somehow I ended up at 'freemp3q' rather than 'x', but with same result. The entire catalogue in now available free, albeit as 128 mp3s rather than music. We don't use Soundcloud. But it does not come as as a surprise. It would more suprising if nobody was doing this.

I'm fascinated by the problem of how to sell music while all the music ever reoorded anywhere on Earth is available free at once at the click of button on a mobile phone. It's a real entrepreneurial challenge. I'll let you know if I ever solve it, from my island in the sun.

What I don't understand is their business model. How do these sites make their money?

Quote petev3.1:

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How do these sites make their money?

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Probably advertising.

sites like www.offliberty.com - great for sampling, but youre shooting yourself in the foot in hindsight if youre gonna complain about the likes of freemp3x.com
im pissed that my stuff is on that site, i mean, my stuff is available for free download in soundcloud, but id like to at least be able to track my listens and plays..
thats half the fun of it imho!
getting feedback and making new stuff and trying to absorb/use the info youre getting from people that like your music, its a very rewarding process..

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www.soundcloud.com/skerrick

after sending them an angry message via Facebook I got the following reply:


'Sorry if you feel that way , but you could have just sent the URLs you want removed ..

Let us know what songs you own and we'll remove them from our index..

Take care and have a nice day ...'

What charming and reasonable thieves.

Quote monkfish:

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after sending them an angry message via Facebook I got the following reply:


'Sorry if you feel that way , but you could have just sent the URLs you want removed ..

Let us know what songs you own and we'll remove them from our index..

Take care and have a nice day ...'

What charming and reasonable thieves.

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hahaha shiiiiiit!
man get their email addy and pass it on to me if you can. im heaps unimpressed by these suckers.

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www.soundcloud.com/skerrick

Assuming this site hosting your music is run by criminals they are unlikely to be able to or willing to use the computer crimes act against a service such as the one I can offer.
For example it would be such a shame if they found someone running a pentest on their server and crashing it over and over again!
PM me if such a service is of use to you.
All the best.

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Black Hat services for piracy victims.

Quote 3nt7r0py:

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they are unlikely to be able to or willing to use the computer crimes act against a service such as the one I can offer.

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But the various providers whose networks en-route could be flooded by the illicit traffic might care.

As would other bona fide users of the Internet who could be impacted.

You is going to jail.

Quote chris...:

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Quote 3nt7r0py:

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they are unlikely to be able to or willing to use the computer crimes act against a service such as the one I can offer.

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But the various providers whose networks en-route could be flooded by the illicit traffic might care.

As would other bona fide users of the Internet who could be impacted.

You is going to jail.

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That is totally incorrect my friend.

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Black Hat services for piracy victims.

To the OP: I am surprised that you are surprised...

Try searching "Full album" on Youtube, 100's of thousand of listens to very popular albums and the record companies still haven't intervened, good luck being the small guy!

At the end of the day you just have to hope that someone who likes your music will want to reward you.