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Help back up the Great 78 Collections before the Record Companies force The Internet Archive to take them down! (yiffit.net)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by Arghblarg@lemmy.ca to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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See linked posting. I've commented there with a link to a CLI tool in Python that allows downloading of IA collections. I've submitted a patch to enable specifying start and end points so that it's easier to resume downloading a huge collection, or to allow multiple people to split up the work.

https://archive.org/details/georgeblood

https://archive.org/details/78rpm_bowling_green

F*ck the RIAA and absurdly long copyright.

EDIT: There is more than one collection of 78s on IA, so I updated the title.

The issue with these collections are that they're absolutely HUGE. And yes, IA offers torrents for them, but as a separate torrent for every. single. album. And the torrents have all data in them -- FLAC, fixed-rate MP3, VBR MP3, PDF liner notes, etc. etc... there may be some extremely hardcore data-hoarders out there who want everything, but IMHO as these are scratchy old 78 records, FLAC is overkill to just save the audio in a listenable format. The George Blood collection, just the VBR MP3s, is looking to be about 6TB. With ALL data it might be over 40TB! I can't afford that many hard drives :)

So, my approach at the moment is to save just the VBR MP3s (they seem to be done at up to 320kbps VBR) and the JPEG album cover. If I have a chance and any storage left afterwards, I can make a separate pass to get the album liner PDFs...

Tool used: https://github.com/jjjake/internetarchive

Patch to allow setting start and end item indices for downloads: https://github.com/jjjake/internetarchive/pull/605

Example usage to grab just the VBR MP3 and record label JPG for each (note the --start-idx and --end-idx arguments):

#ia download --start-idx=4001 --end-idx=8000 -a -i --format="VBR MP3" --format="JPEG" --search collection:georgeblood

I'm going to concentrate on the George Blood collection for now.. I'm starting at item 1. It would be great if others started at index 50,000, 100,000, 150,000, ... and others started at the end and worked backwards in similarly-sized chunks, so that it's assured someone gets each of them.

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[-] blindsight@beehaw.org 103 points 10 months ago

Copyright has completely jumped the shark. There's absolutely no balance between the public benefit of the public domain.

30 years ought to be enough time for anyone to extract any reasonable value from an IP. If you haven't made your profit in 30 years, then let the public benefit from it.

Or at least let preservationists (data hoarders, let's be honest) keep our cultural history alive and accessible for future generations.

[-] keeb420@kbin.social 16 points 10 months ago

And maybe short of very limited production runs there haven't been any 78s produced in a long time. All of that work should be in the public domain.

[-] Grimpen@lemmy.ca 16 points 10 months ago

Or a renewal step. If it's not worth renewing, let it into the public domain.

This is why It's A Wonderful Life became a Christmas classic. Because it was in the pubic domain, it was used as late night filler.

The MPAA and RIAA miss the point. If It's A Wonderful Life was still copyrighted, it wouldn't have become a classic.

It's like the concept of Abandonware. If video games had a large copyright clearing house like the MPAA or RIAA, Abandonware wouldn't work, but abandoned media will disappear. Heck, non-abandoned media also disappears because profits don't reward preservation.

[-] GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago

Ok but then how will my ~~kids~~ record company benefit into perpetuity?

In all seriousness, I think copyright law is the best example of how captured our government is to large corporate interests.

[+] rich@feddit.uk 63 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

[deleted]

[-] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 29 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yeah, you're right, Fuck em.

FYI I'm currently on 4001-8000 of the 'Great 78 Collection'. Looks like I'll need about 6TB to get it all, yikes! (Just the VBR MP3 files, not the FLACs. Holy Hell.)

collection:georgeblood

https://archive.org/details/georgeblood

If everyone would take blocks of it, say 4000 each, we can eventually create torrents for each one or something so it can all be reassembled if/when the IA has to take it down.

[-] TheMadnessKing@lemdro.id 8 points 10 months ago

Yup. Torrents are the way forward to archive such collection.

[-] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago

I wish the IA would offer a torrents of the overall collection but it's over 400k separate torrents, one for each album. And they contain FLACs, fixed- and VBR MP3s, PDF jacket notes, JPGs ... it's just too much for one person (I am OK with buying an 8TB drive or two, but not a dozen!)

I'm trying to at least grab the VBR MP3s (these are old scratchy records after all... I don't know how much FLAC will really preserve). Maybe if I can get most of those, I'll do a second pass and get the album cover JPGs, then liner PDFs... depending on if/how long the collection stays up.

[-] refurbishedrefurbisher 1 points 10 months ago

The IA has torrents for everything they upload already.

[-] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago

Normally I would just fetch the torrent, yes, but this particular collection is huge -- over 400k separate items (which on IA be their own torrents). Is there a way to get an aggregate, but filtered, torrent with just, say, the album jpg and VBR mp3 files for each? I don't think I can afford the entire collection as each also has the FLACs.

[-] 0x0f@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 months ago

which block are you on now?

[-] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago

around 5500... gonna take a while. My ISP says there's no monthly cap but I wonder if I really should dl this much...

[-] Haui@discuss.tchncs.de 37 points 10 months ago

Probably stating the obvious but „are in no threat of being deleted“ is an absolute joke.

A company holding the IP can just make it unavailable tormorrow. A big chunk of us is here because reddit somehow is allowed to delete our posts because the law is idiotic. At least european people are allowed to get their data but the cooperative works of thousands of people is threatened due to those laws.

The concept of IP needs to be reformed.

[-] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 19 points 10 months ago

Yeah. And whenever anyone says "Oh the music companies would never let these old recordings die, it's their bread and butter!" I give them this story.

We cannot trust our cultural heritage to any one entity.

[-] Haui@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 10 months ago

Oof. I just read this. It’s pretty brutal.

[-] sxan@midwest.social 17 points 10 months ago

As concrete examples, try to get a copy of Disney's 1946 movie, "Song of the South." It's been removed from circulation because of its whitewashed presentation of "happy slaves." Similarly, 6 of Dr. Seuss' books, including "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street" were withdrawn because of racial imagery (the mentioned book had a "Chinaman" drawn with a WWII stereotype style - rice hat, sloping eyes, buck teeth).

There's media you simply can't get anymore.

[-] Haui@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 10 months ago

Our culture has been copyrighted.

[-] sxan@midwest.social 5 points 10 months ago

In this case, the media was withdrawn for (arguably) good reasons: the representations were deemed hurtful or harmful.

Good reasons or bad, they still stand as stark examples of how media can disappear at the whims of a single organization.

[-] Haui@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 10 months ago

Yes and it’s horrific

[-] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago

Fun fact, there is a fan made blu-ray quality remaster of Song of the South available on IA.

[-] sxan@midwest.social 2 points 10 months ago

Say what? Now I'm curious how they handled the slavery topic, and found actors for it.

Thanks for the heads-up!

[-] GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Song of the South does whitewash being black in the USA, but it is set in post-civil war America, so superficially it does not need to handle the slavery topic, which can be dismissed as having been dealt with already.

[-] WarmSoda@lemm.ee -4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Did you think your posts on Reddit were protected by copyright laws or something?

Are you seriously comparing posts on a forum to music rights?

[-] Haui@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 10 months ago

What exactly are you trying to convey? That these „works“ made by ordinary people who have only a basic understanding of copyright law should be deleted if someone feels like it? That the law is more important than justice?

Also, do you really think you‘re cool by implying things phrased as a question? Won‘t you just talk like a normal person and state your opinion instead of fake-calling-out others?

[-] WarmSoda@lemm.ee -2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Posts you make on a forum are not "works" that are copyrightable. Deleting a post is not an injustice.

Sentences phrased with a question mark means it's asking a question. When someone asks a question, the normal response is to then provide an answer to that question.

But you're just being an asshole. You know exactly what I'm saying, and you know you're saying ridiculous things so your only response is not answering either of the two questions and and then try to twist it.

[-] Haui@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 10 months ago

I‘m glad you saw your mistake. Have a good one.

[-] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Not going to answer anything, huh? Typical.

[-] Haui@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 10 months ago

Does this happen to you often? Maybe rethink your approach in discussions.

[-] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 0 points 10 months ago

Or, you could not be an idiot. Try that sometime.

[-] Haui@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 10 months ago

Or you can double down and blame others for your behavior, sure.

[-] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Posts you make on a forum are not "works" that are copyrightable.

That may depend on the platform -- slashdot (remember that site?) once upon a time had a footer on their pages stating "All posts belong to their authors". There were a few big debates about that being legally enforceable. Hmm. I wonder if there ever was a legal ruling on that.

I notice today their site does not have such a disclaimer. Probably disappeared long ago, due to one of their many corporate buyouts.

[-] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

You make a good point. They specifically said reddit though.

[-] maudefi@lemm.ee 24 points 10 months ago

Cool tool! Please consider leaving GitHub for any of the numerous FOSS options.

[-] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 9 points 10 months ago

Oh, it's not my project -- I already have moved my own projects off there, yeah.

[-] maudefi@lemm.ee 7 points 10 months ago

That's awesome! Really encouraging seeing projects and devs migrate away from closed-source and proprietary systems and features. 💪

[-] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

sourcehut, self-hosted Gogs or Forgejo are some good candidates. Gitea is popular, but there's apparently been some drama about them going commercial without proper buy-in from their contributors. (The code lineage is AFAIK Gogs → Gitea → Forgejo).

All the above solutions make it super-easy to mirror a github project as well, just in case it goes away :) Doing so has saved my arse more than a few times when github takes a repo down for stupid reasons.

Mandatory plug for !selfhosted@lemmy.world :)

Gitlab seems too heavyweight to me. I use Gogs myself on my home server. No code review tools via PR ala github/gitlab, but I don't need those in my web frontend.

[-] the_lone_wolf@lemmy.ml 10 points 10 months ago

pirates sail your ship

[-] Cyb3rManiak@kbin.social 8 points 10 months ago

Instructions unclear. Linked posting explains nothing. Will assume this is about 78 missing dragonballs and move on.

Jokes aside, we must preserve the 78 collection. What if in the future an alien signal will reach earth and no one can understand it because all 78s are extinct? We don't have Starfleet to go back in time and get a 78 from San Francisco in the past to save the future!