Linux users no longer have an excuse to pirate MP3s
ONLINE RETAIL giant Amazon.com has - as our Charlie D reported - surprised everyone with its MP3 store. So how would it work for a DRM-free Linux user?. It turns out that very well.
Despite Charlie's - and Amazon.com's - warnings about the process being for U.S. customers only, I loaded my SeaMonkey browser and decided to check how far I could get.
I typed the name of the first obscure song that came to my mind... hrmm... late '90s obscure band 'Cowboy Junkies' came to my mind. So I typed the bands name and lo and behold, a good list of songs to choose from, most of which at $0.89. Not bad. I selected the band's surely one-hit-wonder "Common Disaster ", which was also what I expected from online music purchases.
After clicking on the "Buy MP3" button, the next screen suggests you download the "Amazon MP3 downloader", available in versions for Windows XP and Mac OS-X. However, the page made it clear that it was an optional step. "If you would rather not install the Amazon MP3 downloader, you can purchase individual songs without it." Bravo, Amazon!
The next step is a confirmation screen where you can still back out from the purchase. I clicked on "Download Song" and was taken to the payment page. I selected my international Mastercard, selected my Miami, FL U.S. mailing address - OK, so here's where I cheated, because I DO have a US shipping and billing address, and I've had one for years. After that screen, a download of the MP3 file was initiated!. The file was named "2 - A Common Disaster.mp3", hinting that the file names include the track number on the original CD.
After this step you're taken to the payment page
Six minutes later - as this poor scribbler only has 256K broadband- I had the 6.5MB big song in my PC, an unprotected, DRM-free MP3 legally purchased from Amazon.com. Oh the wonder. I played it with the open sauce Audacious MP3 player - an XMMS derivative but with a nice Gnome interface-, and confirmed the song quality is as good as you can get by ripping your own legal CDs and encoding at 256K quality. Checking the ID3 info showed that the MP3s contain full and accurate information, with an interesting oddity which is the ID3 "Comments" field includes the Amazon.com "song ID#". In the case of this file, it was " Amazon.com Song ID: 202593139".
So what was next?. Checking how extensive are the offerings... I looked at the ceiling and tried to come up with obscure songs I liked in my youth... one instantly popped up: "Weather with you" from the Australians Crowded House. It's also available at $0.89. So far, not bad. Two out of two. Again I tried to come up with some obscure song and I surely found one: "Here is the News" by Electric Light Orchestra and from the album "Time" the very first record I got as a kid - a darn fine one to boot. I typed "ELO"... nothing. So I switched to "E.L.O." and that didn't work either -Amazon.com said nothing was found. I tried one last time by typing the full name "Electric Light Orchestra". Bingo. A list of songs appeared. But not "Here is the News". That song/album appears not to be part of the current offerings. Two out of three. Not bad, yet not perfect.
Trying to push the envelope I typed the name of a local .AR band you probably never heard of "Soda Stereo". The result? One song. Apparently from a compilation CD of Latin pop/rock. So I typed "Tango" and got a whopping amount of Carlos Gardel songs. Impressive.
The good
1. The download process is quick. Downloading custom software is not mandatory.
2. Linux-friendly process. You just need a browser and a credit card. The way it
should be. 3. Files are DRM-free
The bad
1. It would be really great if, based on GEO-location or the country where the
credit card is registered, prices could be adapted to the realities of the local
market -that is, the price of a new CD in the customer's market-. 2. Three years
ago, little outfit Mindawn
showed how digital music
purchases should be done. Now Amazon.com awakened to what customers want. Great.
But what about copying the innovation of Mindawn as well, and offer the files
not only in MP3 format, but patent-free OGG Vorbis as well?. Not all Linux
distros can play back MP3 files due to patent concerns, and OGG advocates say
that Vorbis (.OGG) files sound better and take up less space. 3. Despite the
advantage of MP3 files, they still offer less quality than a music CD due to the
"lossy" compression. There is, however, a way to compress a CD by 50% or more
yet don't lose a single bit of information: it's a codec dubbed FLAC which is
also open for all to use. Want to charge $1 instead of $0.89 for "high quality"
songs? Fine by me!. And guess who's been offering FLAC files as well since 2004?
Yes, Mindawn.com.
The Ugly
It should be really open to everyone, not just U.S. customers. It should offer
Vorbis (.OGG) in addition to MP3, and it would be great to have FLAC as a "
high-quality" option, at a higher price. Finally, the biggest drawback I've
found is that you cannot currently pay the purchase price of MP3 songs with your
Amazon.com credit, or a gift certificate.
Other than that, they should drop the "Beta" tag... it looks ready to go. On second thought... no, it's not ready until I can order the full "Time" album from Electric Light Orchestra.µ
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Shame they didn't copy AllOfMp3 and offer any encoding you want priced per MB.

A quick check confirms AOMP3 have ELO's Time for $1.91 at 192Kb VBR or $$2.96 for Ogg-320Kb
Forget ELO, this service is already a goldmine:

Do a search on "Stock Aiken Waterman". I'm very tempted to get the album that comes up.
Interpretation of the MP3 format is covered by a (European company held) patent. As a software patent, it is not valid in Europe, but it is enforceable in the U.S. Very few Linux distributions (e.g., Linspire is an exception) have licensed the patent. Amazon needs to be careful; they could get sued as an "attractive nuisance" - a legal term of art you want to look up.
If you read Amazon's FAQ you find that their proprietary software is required - if you want to buy whole albums. This is because the songs are "queued up" by that program (this is apparently a big challenge to Amazon). And, as you say, no FLAC, no wav. PS: in sunny Cali, we have heard of ALL those groups <waving off with a limp hand>. NO: Los Dug Dug's, Cleopatra's Vagina. YES: The Slits, Fu Manchu, 1 cut from Bud and Travis, Rhinoceros, and Rumplestiltskin. I see a drinking game in the making.
AAARRRGHHH!
I remember buying Time by ELO on vinyl with great expectations, but compared to their earlier work I was a little disappointed.

Time was a little too synthetic, but there were a few good tracks on that album. 

Now if you said the "Discovery" Album, I would say Woot, Woot, and also the double Album "Out of the Blue" has a special place in my heart too, and still remains my favorite!
Yeah....Crowded House were Australian. Singer Neil Finn comes from NZ, but the band formed in Oz, played around the world, and held their farewell concert in Oz....They're Australian and that's that mate.
> There is, however, a way to compress a CD by 50% or more yet don't lose a single bit of information: it's a codec dubbed FLAC

It's a great codec, but let's not exaggerate! From wikipedia, "Audio sources encoded to FLAC are typically reduced in size 30 to 40 percent." I have also personally found this to be the case, since I recently started backing up some CDs to flac with the excellent autoflac.
"1. It would be really great if, based on GEO-location or the country where the credit card is registered, prices could be adapted to the realities of the local market -that is, the price of a new CD in the customer's market"

No it wouldn't!!! Here in the UK, our CD prices are outrageous, compared to those in the US or Europe. We're tired of being ripped off already, please don't encourage the music industry to make it worse!
How funny, before I finished reading the article I had already searched for ELO and for "Fire on High". And yes, I used to own several vinyl ELO albums, Time, El Dorado, Ole' ELO, A New World Record, Out of the Blue, Discovery, and I recently bought Zoom, which was a disappointment due to the terrible sound quality. Fortunately, I still have them on cassette and have managed to transfer most of them into ogg. The only vinyl album I still have is Out of the Blue. Maybe I will sell it one day in Ebay. Keep your eyes open. Any way, I salute all you ELO fans out there. 
PS: Shame on the inquirer for forcing me to use ie to post this comment. The verification code does not display at all on Firefox. :P
Hi,
Would like to make a correction in the article and responses. 

If you use MP3 for home use (not redistribution) the patent holder has no problem w/Linux users using it. 

I am sorry I can not quickly give you the specific web page reference of the patent holder to go to confirm this, but there are words to this effect if you want to dig for it.
If we want FLAC on Amazon we'd better start writing them. I'll send them an e-mail tonight.
Well, I also tried to use Amazon's MP3 store from my Linux box and cannot share this glowing experience. Try and buy a whole CD and you're screwed as buying a CD requires the silly download manager, which of course only run on windoze and Mac.

Amazon claims to have a Linux version under development.

We'll see.
I forgot to say that according to ArsTechnica "Amazon has also announced that a Linux version will be available soon"
http://tinyurl.com/25q5ox
the only shame is the tittle of this article, you cant pirate a cd that you already own, for that matter a vinil disc or magnetic tape. Why would i want to d/l a cd i already have? If you are saving a record publisher all overhead cost of duplication printing etc, then why is it so expensive. Its like the self checkout lines appearing at super markets, you bag your groceries check your self out and pay the same inflated price. Why dont you give yourself a swift kick in the arse while youre at it.
"U.S. Linux mp3 illegal
Interpretation of the MP3 format is covered by a (European company held) patent. As a software patent, it is not valid in Europe, but it is enforceable in the U.S. Very few Linux distributions (e.g., Linspire is an exception) have licensed the patent. Amazon needs to be careful; they could get sued as an "attractive nuisance" - a legal term of art you want to look up. "

Not true:
"Fluendo has paid the license of Fraunhofer and Thomson to be able to distribute a binary mp3 decoder. This means that people who want mp3 support for the desktop music players can get a fully licensed plug-in directly from this site for doing so." via http://www.fluendo.com/resources/fluendo_mp3.php
I would definitely be more interested in the OGG vorbis format. I'm not a lawyer, but I believe Amazon is a far cry away from being liable under the "attractive nuisance" argument. Even though the MP3 format is not licensed readily by most Linux distributions I am pretty sure that neither Microsoft or Apple have licensed the format for inclusion in their operating systems either. Despite this a few Linux distributions have licensed it!

Here is also why they would not be liable:

1. Users can obtain licenses/codecs legally for Linux through third party companies. Some distributions like Linspire, Xandros, Turbolinux, Novell and others have licensed it (double check- pretty certain these companies have licensed it for at least one version of the distribution).

2. Music downloaded with the computer is most likely to be transfered to an external audio playing device with a licensed codec. It is also not definite that free audio players with support for MP3 are in violation in countries where the patents are enforced/enforceable as exceptions have been granted for decoding for this type of free or open source software.

Despite all the above many distributions have decided to exclude playback or encoding anyway for one reason or another.
I wrote to Amazon stating that the FLAC download capability would really round off this functionality, and reflect the growing trend for open standards.
Their response was surprisingly honest and open.
See their response here:
http://linuxsoftwareblog.com/blog/?p=181