Demanding, Pushy Stream-ripping dogs

[calldon]

(FYI, I accidentally posted this to the wrong forum earlier and have already asked that it be removed from that forum.)

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I thought some of you might get a kick out of this one. In the past there was a discussion regarding people ripping your stream then wanting to know the song they just ripped! So I'm not the only one. But now, I have a ripper telling me how to do it so he can more easily rip-off the music. Here is the short version of how much gall some jokers have...

JAN 25, I received,
"Recorded a song from Shoutcast..." then rambled awhile and finally asked me to research the title for him since he "missed it". (signed) "Tom Sekula Palmetto, Florida"

I did not respond.

FEB 8, I received,
"Any chance on getting an answer on this? Would appreciate it."

So I responded with,
"I have spent close to 2000 hours converting my LP
collection into digital form and I'm not even 25% thru
the collection. That's alot of work for a hobby, not
counting the years of collecting and the expense of
the original recordings. Since there are few stations
like that still around, I thought it would be nice to
share the music via Shoutcast for listening, just for
listening.
Thanks"

FEB 9, I received,
"Would appreciate it if you didn't run the songs on top of one another. Give them a two second silent break between them. Thanks. Too bad you can't trace selection names.
(signed) Joe Pinesfore"

So I responded with,
"With all due respect, I would appreciate it if you
would buy the records themselves rather than steal the
music."

---

In the past, several people have written that they are recording the stream (for various reasons) and they need information for a song they have recorded. But I have never had anyone tell me to stop using crossfade so he can better steal my music. That takes gall.

I have never responded to any ripper-dog before. From this point, I will probably not respond again to any of them.

D*

[Greg_E]

There was a post about how to automatically kick some of the stream rippers. You might want to take a look for it.

[dotme]

lmao - that's hilarious. You use SAM by any chance? I have a PAL script that will drive them craaaazy...

[MegaRock]

I'd get their IP from the e-mail and ban them. Stream rippers piss me off so I make damn sure I overlap all the songs with crossfading and delay title changes at least a few seonds after the start of a song. Makes it all but impossible to steal a perfect copy of any song.

[Goodtimez]

WOW! I can't believe the nerve of some people. I once found a post in a forum about my station where the guy was bragging that he ripped 4 gigs of music from my stream . . . Needless to say I had mixed feelings about it.

[calldon]

Originally posted by MegaRock
I'd get their IP from the e-mail and ban them. Stream rippers piss me off so I make damn sure I overlap all the songs with crossfading and delay title changes at least a few seonds after the start of a song. Makes it all but impossible to steal a perfect copy of any song.

EXCELLENT idea!!! I did not realize I could do that. So I looked at the full headers. There were several IP addresses, probably a couple of relays. So I banned them all.

If you want to get an idea where the IP address is, this site will put it on a map for you.
http://ip-adress.com/

On the original e-mail, there was an IP address that showed on the map to be the Palmeto FL location. That is where he said he was in the first post.

Thanks for the idea.

I am using Winamp as my playout program. HOW DO I delay the title changes? I don't have any idea of that one.

Thanks again for the great advice.

D*

[calldon]

Originally posted by dotme
lmao - that's hilarious. You use SAM by any chance? I have a PAL script that will drive them craaaazy...

I am not using SAM. For my needs, SAM is overkill. But tell us about the script anyway, what does it do that makes them craaaazy?

D*

[MegaRock]

SAM has a scripting feature that runs 'PAL' scripts. These programs can randomly change the stream titles within the ID3 tagging in the stream yet at the same time can generate correct song titles to a seperate output. Since stream rippers all work on detecing the ID3 tag changes in the stream if you toy with that every 30 seconds it blows their ripping program useless. Yet at the same time the real title information is output elsewhere so listeners can still get correct information.

Works like a charm.

[calldon]

Originally posted by MegaRock
SAM has a scripting feature that runs 'PAL' scripts. These programs can randomly change the stream titles within the ID3 tagging in the stream yet at the same time can generate correct song titles to a seperate output. Since stream rippers all work on detecing the ID3 tag changes in the stream if you toy with that every 30 seconds it blows their ripping program useless. Yet at the same time the real title information is output elsewhere so listeners can still get correct information.

Works like a charm.

That's great. I considered SAM a couple of years ago. But at this point, I don't play commercial spots or do network feeds or anything that critical. I have a station ID/liner at the top of the hour and every quarter/half hour. That's about it. SAM might be more than I need.

Also, using Station Playlist Creator, I keep my music categories in simple folders. When I create the categories in SPLCreator, it reads the folders and I don't have to add tunes to the program itself, just to the folders. When I add new tunes, I just add them to the category folders, not to the program itself.

AND FINALLY, Winamp is my playout program. The SQRSOFT Crossfade works fine automatically with Winamp. I don't want to go back and add start and stop points to my 5000+ song files just for crossfading.

And FYI, the ripper dog never wrote back again!

Thanks for the explanation about the PAL script! Sounds good.

D*

[Jay]

Originally posted by calldon
I don't want to go back and add start and stop points to my 5000+ song files just for crossfading.

Just an FYI this is not necessary in SAM. The crossfading works very similarly to what you are used to with SQRSoft.

[Wavestreaming]

This is shocking...

[calldon]

Originally posted by Jay
Just an FYI this is not necessary in SAM. The crossfading works very similarly to what you are used to with SQRSoft.

With Winamp and SQRSoft, I use the "Crossfade when signal level falls to...". Around 80% of the time, it does a perfect job. The other 20% of the time is good. I don't remember how SAM handles the crossfade. If it were as easy as it is now, I would consider it for some of the other features, cover art, PAL files, etc.

How does SAM handle crossfades?

[Jay]

exactly the way you describe and similar to the setup with SQRSoft. It has been that way since version 2. You can set the crossfade preferences in the Config window. SAM will also crossfade at a particular audio level a certain milliseconds from the end of the song, all which is configurable.

[calldon]

Originally posted by Jay
exactly the way you describe and similar to the setup with SQRSoft. It has been that way since version 2. You can set the crossfade preferences in the Config window. SAM will also crossfade at a particular audio level a certain milliseconds from the end of the song, all which is configurable.

REALLY?!? Well, you are convincing me that I might want to try SAM again. It has been at least three years since I tried SAM. I don't remember the version I was using.

The two things I did not like about it were:

1) IIRC, I had to set crossfade times per song.
2) Adding song files to categories seemed cumbersome.

Of course, I know alot more about desktop broadcasting now than I did then. I might give it a try when I have a couple of weeks to spend tweaking it.

Features I like now, the PAL script idea an sending the cover-art to a web site. First, I would have to learn how to design the web site to use that feature...which I have never done. My sites stay pretty simple!

Thanks for the info.
D*

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[calldon]

Originally posted by MegaRock
SAM has a scripting feature that runs 'PAL' scripts. These programs can randomly change the stream titles within the ID3 tagging in the stream yet at the same time can generate correct song titles to a seperate output. Since stream rippers all work on detecing the ID3 tag changes in the stream if you toy with that every 30 seconds it blows their ripping program useless. Yet at the same time the real title information is output elsewhere so listeners can still get correct information.

Works like a charm.

One more (or 2) question re: SAM, the current version. I like the idea of the PAL scripts to get rid of the rippers. But are you requied to use SpacialNet as a stream server? Everything seems geared to using that. I have a stream server company that I like, streaming in MP3 and AACPlus. Can't I stay with them or am I required to change to SpacialNet?

Also, with my little Winamp set-up, it is SO easy to stream both at the same time. How easy is it to stream two streams with SAM?

Thanks,
D*

[Jay]

Originally posted by calldon
One more (or 2) question re: SAM, the current version. I like the idea of the PAL scripts to get rid of the rippers. But are you requied to use SpacialNet as a stream server? Everything seems geared to using that. I have a stream server company that I like, streaming in MP3 and AACPlus. Can't I stay with them or am I required to change to SpacialNet?

Also, with my little Winamp set-up, it is SO easy to stream both at the same time. How easy is it to stream two streams with SAM?

Thanks,
D*

You are not required to use SpacialNet. More of the features in SAM that turn toward SpacialNet have to do with an Audiorealm Listing and not where the stream is hosted. If you do not care about Audiorealm then you have no need to sign up or be apart of SpacialNet. Also adding new encoders is simple from Desktop B. Any number of streams can be duplicated from within the application and sent to any streaming server supported. There is no bias to any particular service or codec.

Feel free to check out the Spacialaudio Forums if you have any other questions about this product. This is really outside of the scope of support here.

[calldon]

Originally posted by Jay
[ Any number of streams can be duplicated from within the application and sent to any streaming server supported. There is no bias to any particular service or codec.

Feel free to check out the Spacialaudio Forums if you have any other questions about this product. This is really outside of the scope of support here. [/B]

Thanks!