stirgeon
join:2002-07-29
San Jose, CA
|  Well deyamn...
I used this service for about 3 months last year and I thought it was perfect. I must have dloaded at least 25 albums over that span. I wonder what the threshold is for the Gestapo to start knocking on your door?
I always recommended them to my friends. Guess that is over. FTP and eDonkey!!! |
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some guy
@milwwi.ameritech
 from:
some guy$ 
MxxCon
| here's what they sent me after i queued up and downloaded 200 albums in 3 days
"Dear EMusic Subscriber,
Over the past several weeks we have noticed unusual activity on your EMusic
account. Your account has been identified as having download activity far in
exceeding that of the overwhelming majority of subscribers.
Although EMusic's goal has been to help consumers discover, sample and
download a wide range of music for personal use and enjoyment, EMusic cannot
continue to operate as a legal source for indiscriminate downloading of
copyrighted sound recordings and musical compositions. Unlike other online
music subscription services, EMusic has gone to great lengths to provide an
open, easy-to-use service, for a reasonable price. Without regard to content
hosting, serving and administrative expenses, royalties payable to recording
artists and/or songwriters with respect to every downloaded track no longer
affords EMusic the luxury of taking these matters lightly.
In order to maintain EMusic's low price while providing a flexible and
compelling service, we must focus on limiting instances of service-abuse by
monitoring the site for unusual activity. Examples of service-abuses include,
but are not limited to, password sharing and use of automated systems to
download quantities of tracks far beyond one's reasonable personal use.
Accounts found to be used in violation of the expressed or implied guidelines
of EMusic's service are subject to immediate cancellation. (See EMusic.com's
Subscription Agreement at »www.emusic.com/bem/new_signup/terms.html,
particularly the termination provisions set forth in Section 7.1.) We ask
that you carefully consider these guidelines and the EMusic.com Subscription
Agreement terms and conditions as you use the service in the future.
Sincerely,
EMusic.com"
here's what i sent them back
"ok this is what your faq says
"EMusic is a revolutionary new music discovery service that offers
an easy and inexpensive way for avid music fans to download and
enjoy over 200,000 high-quality MP3 songs from established musicians.
For as little as $9.99 a month, you can download as much music as
you desire from EMusic's catalog. All of the music is legitimately
licensed from record labels and artists, so you can feel comfortable
knowing that songwriters, musicians and other copyright-holders
are being fairly compensated for their work."
"For as little as $9.99 a month, you can download as much music
as you desire from EMusic's catalog"
downloading 200 albums using YOUR downloading program does not violate
the TOS--if i want to download 1000 albums i will if that is what "i desire"
if i don't fit your business model, that's YOUR problem--not mine.
if you are going to send out emails to everyone who uses the service
to the best of their ability and rail on them for doing what the
site suggests, i.e. "unlimited downloads", then maybe you should change your site"
here was their response
"Dear EMusic Subscriber,
Thank you for contacting us in response to our email
concerning your account activity.
The intent of EMusic has never been to enable
customers to indiscriminately download massive numbers
of songs. We designed EMusic as an interactive
service to allow you to sample, discover and listen to
music from our many label partners.
Although we do not want to discourage active use of
our service, we have concluded that we cannot support
customers who are downloading huge numbers of tracks
that they cannot possibly ever listen to. EMusic pays
music publishers and songwriters a fixed amount for
every track downloaded from our site. This means that
the costs of supporting the small number of users who
abuse EMusic can impact our ability to provide our
service to the rest of our users. We are passionate
about EMusic, and we are working hard to ensure the
service continues to grow and meet our customers'
needs.
As a guideline, please use the service as it was
intended to be used -- for sampling songs and albums
and downloading numbers of tracks you can personally
use and enjoy. We hope this background information is
helpful and that you continue to enjoy EMusic.
EMusic.com"
they can go to hell |
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some guy
@milwwi.ameritech
| p.s. i think i downloaded about 1000 albums from them in total, at a total cost of about 120 dollars--all good jazz and blues stuff, some rock, some folk, some country etc.
their service is old, and was created with dialup in mind--the broadband revolution must have caught them off guard--they never saw this fat guy strolling into their HOJO's... |
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BIGHUSKER
join:2002-01-20
Minneapolis, MN
| reply to some guy
I hope you replied and told them to "go to hell." If I was paying $10 a month for a service and got talked to like that, I would cancel my account in a second. If a representative of a company talked to me like that in person, I might kick the crap out of him. |
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some guy
@milwwi.ameritech | i'll save that for when i get booted--i'm going to queue up 200 more albums (discriminately of course) and see what the magic number is, and report it back to you good fellas & fellettes |
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TheWickerMan
join:2002-04-09
Enola, PA
| reply to some guy
"...customers who are downloading huge numbers of tracks that they cannot possibly ever listen to"
Says who? I've bought over 200 CDs, and I've listen to all of them at least once. I listen to a few at work, I always have one in the car, and sometimes I'll even listen to them at home.
Sounds like someone over there said, "Oh, crap! We can't afford the bandwidth!", and decided to change the rules in the middle of the game. |
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Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI
 ·AT&T Midwest
 ·Site5.com
 ·Comcast
| reply to some guy
said by some guy:
i'll save that for when i get booted--i'm going to queue up 200 more albums (discriminately of course) and see what the magic number is, and report it back to you good fellas & fellettes
Please register on this site. I am sure you will find this board to be a very entertaining one and your opinions are welcome. 
--
My Domain
Nightfall's Hockey and Life Journal |
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Dotay
join:2002-11-08
Fort Wayne, IN
| reply to some guy
This got me thinking. While they say that 200 albums in 3 days is unreasonable it would be interesting to see what they would accept as reasonable. Lets say for arguments sake that 10 albums a month would be reasonable. Each album has on average 15 songs. So that would get you about 150 songs a month. So at $10.00 per month that equals $.06 per song.
Kind of makes you wonder why the major labels are charging $1.00 per song for their download sites and $15.00 per CD.
[text was edited by author 2002-11-08 14:03:09] |
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some guy$
Mommy What's Irony?
join:2002-11-08
Manitowoc, WI | reply to TheWickerMan
i bought 900 at full price, some of which are offered for pretty much free there--i see it as my way of "evening the score" with record companies that i gave entirely too much money from 1992-1999 ( i did buy 4 "real" cd's since 1999) |
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Aramis604
I Represent Nobody But Myself.
Premium
join:2000-12-15
Poway, CA
clubs:
| reply to some guy
I'm interested to know what they consider to be a
quote:
huge numbers of tracks
that they cannot possibly ever listen to
Before the whole p2p thing started, I had about 250 store bought CDs. Average that out to about 11 tracks per CD that's 2,750 songs. Now I'll admit I don't listen to all of these daily, but I do listen to all of them from time to time.
how can they possibly think they can put a limit on the number of tracks someone can "possibly" ever list to? How pompous is that? |
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archfeld
join:2001-07-29
Concord, CA
| reply to BIGHUSKER
that is a blatant violation of the terms of service. There is NO SUCH THING as the spirit of the agreement, only the ACTUAL words and the interpretation a court puts on them. I'd sue..that is if I was silly enough to actually use a lame service like that. |
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dsmey
@Dial1.NewY
from:
neutral
| reply to Aramis604
Frankly, I think you guys are being dense. Would you walk out of Tower records with a stack of 250 CDs? No, that would be stupid -- you would buy some, listen to them, and then buy some more. Obviously, this is what EMusic is asking you to do.
Otherwise, you are claiming it is fair to pay them, let's say, $45 (for the 3-month deal) and take hundreds of CDs (or thousands of retail dollars) worth of music. Figure it at about $.50 a disk in mechanical repro royalties (which is around what EMusic claims they pay) and then figure out how much you are looting from them.
Granted, they need to change their policy, but I can see why they decided to cut off all of you jerks first. |
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sherpaboy
join:2001-07-06
Seattle, WA
| reply to BIGHUSKER
"Kick the crap out him" that's rich. How 'bout "kick the crap out of her" if it was a she? Jesus, get a life, "kick the crap out of him cuz you didn't get no respect!"
GOD DAMMIT! IF I BE PAYIN' 10 FREAKIN DOLLARS A MONTH THEY BEST TREAT ME LIKE I BE DA KING OR I GONNA KICK DARE ASS!
Stick with the "vote with the dollar part". It's what real people do. |
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The Rogue Wolf
| reply to dsmey
I believe you're missing the point. It's not an issue of if the downloaders were getting more than they were "entitled" to. It's that this company advertises, and explicitly promises, "unlimited" downloads, and then threatens- and terminates- member accounts for doing exactly that, insisting that the users were violating the "spirit" of the agreement. That's like renting a car on an unlimited mileage plan, and then being penalized because you drove it across a few states, instead of just to the supermarket and back.
If they want to limit it, fine. It's their service. But they MUST state up-front, clearly and plainly, what those exact limitations are. Their method, as it stands now, is borderline fraud. |
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Aramis604
I Represent Nobody But Myself.
Premium
join:2000-12-15
Poway, CA
clubs:
| reply to dsmey
If Tower Records were to advertise something to the effect of
"For just $45 you can have all the CDs you want from our selection of over 200,000 CDs available."
(now, I realize this is never going to happen, but for the sake of argument, let's go with it.)
Yeah, I might very well walk out of there with a stack of 250 CDs. But the point here is that EMusic advertised "Unlimited for as little as $9.99mo." Now I don't claim to ever used their service, and I don't have access to the TOS. There might be something in the quote "fine print" limiting its use. But from the other posts I've read on this topic, I don’t think that is the case.
How can someone be accused of being greedy or overindulging by taking advantage of the service as it was sold to them? What it sounds like to me is that EMusic has had a larger demand for the product then they were prepared, or able to supply for, and now they are trying to back peddle a bit. If they need to change the TOS for their product, well, that's their prerogative. They do however (and I think legally) need to either,
1. Inform all their current customers of the change, and then implement it on a scheduled date.
Or
2. Grandfather all their current customers, and then change the TOS for all 'new' customers.
|
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some guy$
Mommy What's Irony?
join:2002-11-08
Manitowoc, WI
| reply to dsmey
I paid for the 250 albums--thats the whole point
I don't give a rat's anterior cruciate ligament if they make money or artists make money or what have you--I paid for unlimited downloads, and that is what I'm going to get.
The tower records thing is completely off the wall, because I PAID for the 250 albums! tower records would put them in a bag and say "Thank you sir!"
"Otherwise, you are claiming it is fair to pay them, let's say, $45 (for the 3-month deal) and take hundreds of CDs (or thousands of retail dollars) worth of music. Figure it at about $.50 a disk in mechanical repro royalties (which is around what EMusic claims they pay) and then figure out how much you are looting from them."
THAT IS WHAT THEY OFFERED! they offered unlimited downloads--they didn't say 2 albums a week, or "hey go easy on us we have nt iis4.0 servers"
if they want limits, fine put them in writing, until then i'm grabbing anything i find even remotely interesting |
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clamp
join:2002-09-24
San Jose, CA
|  reply to some guy
Who decides whether I can listen to 200 CDs a month or not? Why does eMusic has the right to tell me "well, please do not listen to CDs too much, 200 CDs are going to hurt you." Who cares, and why should eMusic care? They either remove the "unlimited" word or we will just won't join them and......hate to say, keep doing P2P. |
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dsmey
@Dial1.NewY
| reply to some guy$
Oh, I understand now. Clearly all you guys have been really badly ripped off. You ONLY got hundreds of albums for virtually nothing. I can see why you want to sue for your $10 back, since you were so badly deceived and abused.
What a terrible, terrible deal this EMusic thing turned out to be.
I mean really, the worst thing that happened is that they were rude about it. They aren't "threatening" anybody, they are basically just saying they don't want to play with you anymore. You get to walk away with armloads of stuff, and you don't even have to pay for a whole year (or 3 month) commitment. |
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some guy$
Mommy What's Irony?
join:2002-11-08
Manitowoc, WI | well what did they expect? i'm not bitching because i got lots of stuff--but there are new customers who got booted after 4 albums and charged the full year's rate--do you think 4 low quality cd rips are worth 120 bucks? |
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lurker93
Premium
join:2000-06-19
Houston, TX
| reply to BIGHUSKER
said by BIGHUSKER :
If I was paying $10 a month for a service and got talked to like that, I would cancel my account in a second.
Well, duh! That is what they want from the hogs.
You can double your userbase with no changes, if you only
lose the 5% who use half the resources.
Some people just don't understand not-so-subtle hints
and get booted. Check out closing time at the local bar... |
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