[vimeo 2380513]
The Amazon MP3 Store may have the lowest prices on DRM free music, but for some people 79 cents for a song is just too much, especially when [john] and the folks at pirates-of-the-amazon.com can help you get that song for free. Pirates of the Amazon is a slick Firefox addon that inserts a “download 4 free” button next to the “add to cart” button in the Amazon MP3 Store. After clicking on the button, the addon refers users to a thepiratebay.org search page with bittorrent download links for the song or album. While there is no question that this makes getting your music easier, by using this addon you do run the risk of violating copyright laws, depending on which country you live in.
There isn’t much here that hasn’t been thrown into Greasemonkey scripts in the past and we wonder if they’re marketing this to anyone at all. People who absolutely love using Amazon but hate buying stuff perhaps? They cite a couple interesting projects in their about section: Amazon Noir robotically abused the “Search Inside” feature to reconstruct entire books. OU Library searches your local library to see if it has the Amazon book you’re looking for.
Not really the one tho is it……
Have a heart for us musicians!
idk about this. if you’re already using the amazon system, you probably aren’t interested in torrenting the music
and vice-versa: if you aren’t interested in paying for music, you’d probably never use the amazon system. now if they packaged this by default into firefox, for people who are just getting into mp3, that might capture a niche audience…
ironic you post this on the day that two uk music distribution firms (EUK, pinnacle) shut their doors.
this whole thing conjures up strong dislike – people who use ‘4’ instead of ‘for’ are only a couple of rungs up the ladder from sex offenders. music downloaders are lame – if you can’t afford 79 cents, you’re not really doing very well at life.
theres already a add-on which lets you download Videos and music for free
Who buys mp3 anyway? When I pay for the music, I buy at least a CD (or better yet, a Audio-DVD).
I hate snitches — the editor. Some things should remain secret if you want to keep your treasures and gold. If I was piratebay, I would play the RIAA and sue the company for the plugin’ and make them 100% responsible for all illegal activity… $$$. setup for failure
As an independent musician I’m disappointed that hackaday considers an easier way to pirate music newsworthy.
“if you aren’t interested in paying for music, you’d probably never use the amazon system.”
Amazon has fantastic summaries of albums, and will let you preview tracks. It’s more useful than just handing over your money in exchange for a CD.
But I am going to have to agree that putting this app on hackaday is kind of stupid, if not downright reprehensible. And a greasemonkey script capable of submitting a custom GET request is not even worthy of digg, much less hackaday.
Buy the music. Get sued. I hope you all do one of the two.
pirates-of-the-amazon.com is down now. see what ya did.
it’s very disappointing when you have to decide between a 256kbps mp3 at Amazon, or a 320kbps or even flac version from the intarwebs…
I won’t buy music online until I can get it lossless.
cd’s ftw.
Go to your local library. Pick out a stack of disks. Free, legal, and lossless.
Your taxes have paid for it. You might as well use it.
is this a windows firefox plugin or will it work on the mac version?
because i do not see the button it is supposed to add.
anyone got a picture of what the page is supposed to look like?
all i want are some losslessly compressed 24-bit digital files. that’s what i’d pay for.
Stupid. Petty. Not news.
The cost of Hack a Day’s integrity: 99 cents.
“pirates-of-the-amazon.com is down now. see what ya did.”
I do hope that was the intent.
I don’t think was worth it to DDoS the site, though. You’re exposing Hack-A-Day to potential litigation and making it sound like this is a script-kiddie site at the same time.
can i haz mad songz an warez plugin 2?
I rarely buy music anymore, on disability income, and not much new material that I like enough to want to listen to it on demand. I do capture music from the free to listen to web pages. Kinda like we tape recorded music off the radio, when AM was king. Now like then, more often than not, I settle for the radio
Yeah like Pirate Bay will be suing anyone, admitting THEY may be making money facilitating others to break laws. Oh well…
Seems like they have taken down the addon saying that it was only “was an artistic parody, part of our media research and education” Not that I condone publicly downloading music you didn’t buy. Seems as though they got too much attention with their new app.
Amazon just changed how they have the interface for their MP3 downloads.
wow, you whiny pricks. we are in a fucking recession and most likely are going to go into a depression.. why would anyone in their RIGHT MIND buy shit they can get for free?
LEARN TO NOT WHINE ABOUT TRIVIAL THINGS..
If someone was giving out free food next to the grocery store would you go into the grocery store and BUY SHIT? (assuming there was nothing wrong with the food)
Apply that reasoning to anything else that you can download off of the internet for free.
Hi George
I’m an independent musician who is about to release his band’s first EP.
Fuck you.
my god, kraftwerk! the best music i know :)
anyone know where i can get amazon noir? the site does not have it anymore
great post !!
I read a few of your other entires.where can i subscribe to your blog?
Thank you for sharing.
There is a similar add-on for greasemonkey/firefox which works with iMDB, aptly named iMDB Pirated edition, uses ajax menus to show RS links, torrents and “Other 1-click file sharing sites”
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/21977
Simple scripts can make the internet so much more productive
ok looking blog seen better.
I wish the musicians and authors who get their work pirated could steal the wages of those who commit the piracy. It absolutely AMAZES me how few people in this world are able to put themselves in the shoes of another. Clearly the world is full of people with no imaginations. Most musicians and authors are extremely low paid (the vast majority of authors actually make little more than “pocket-money” from their work) and if we download pirated editions of their CDs and books the only thing that will happen is the flow of music and books will eventually stop. After all, why should they work for nothing?
Thanks for the great post! This blog really is great and offers a lot of insight! I use this FireFox addon and its good!
Thanks for the great post! This blog really is great and offers a lot of insight!
Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds
In reality Copyright Laws should be re-written.
In today’s world NOTHING IS ORIGINAL as artists and recording industry claims it to be! Be it digital recordings, old records, cassette tapes are not ORIGINALS! They are all sold COPIED from a master! How can recording industry or the artist claim it as ORIGINAL? If I buy a CD today, it is already copied version of orijinal. It means that recording industry and artists are distributing COPIED MATERIAL and they are committing piracy :)! If you put a song mp3 in your web site you are breaking the law even though you paid for it! Are they soon going to come after us for playing the music in parties? You know people who are attending the party are listening and dancing to their music for FREE :)
what is the name of the add on i cant see it
To the people casting judgement for getting free songs… You’re on a website called “hackaday.com” stupid!
Can you tell where I can find the music in the background?