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Revision as of 18:27, 5 September 2006 editScherf (talk | contribs)92 edits →Lawsuits: Formatting.← Previous edit Revision as of 00:48, 10 September 2006 edit undoSteveSmurf (talk | contribs)5 edits revert to last version by Fatandhappy to remove large unverifiable changesNext edit →
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Some computer users who have copied ] from their turntables onto ] have been astonished to find their computers correctly displaying the titles and track listings when these ] are played on their computer. This happens when a commercial ] is a ] version of an ], containing the same tracks in the same order. If the track offsets of the homemade CD match the track timings of the commercial ] to within a second, the CDDB database can identify the ] successfully. Some computer users who have copied ] from their turntables onto ] have been astonished to find their computers correctly displaying the titles and track listings when these ] are played on their computer. This happens when a commercial ] is a ] version of an ], containing the same tracks in the same order. If the track offsets of the homemade CD match the track timings of the commercial ] to within a second, the CDDB database can identify the ] successfully.


==Commercialization and controversy== ==Commercialization and controversy==

In ], Kan and Scherf sold the assets of CDDB to ], a producer of high-end consumer electronics. CDDB was then renamed Gracenote. The maneuver was and remains controversial, because the CDDB database was and is built on the voluntary submission of CD track data by thousands of individual users, who received no compensation for their work. Initially, most of these were users of the xmcd CD player program. The xmcd program itself was an open-source, ] project, and many listing contributors assumed that the database was free as well. Many contributors of track listings were angered at the transfer of these listings to a profit-making entity which proceeded to make money by charging license fees for access to a database of track listings which individuals had contributed for free. In ], Kan and Scherf incorporated CDDB into a privately held company with investment from ], a high-tech venture firm. CDDB was then renamed Gracenote. The maneuver was and remains controversial, because the CDDB database was and is built on the voluntary submission of CD track data by thousands of individual users, who received no compensation for their work. Initially, most of these were users of the xmcd CD player program. The xmcd program itself was an open-source, ] project, and many listing contributors assumed that the database was free as well. However, at some point the code for xmcd was modified to append copyright notices to all submissions. How visible or open this was to contributors remains a matter of debate. Many contributors of track listings were angered at the transfer of these listings to a profit-making entity which proceeded to make money by charging license fees for access to a database of track listings which individuals had contributed for free.

] Gracenote claims that its database contains information on almost 4 million CDs. The reliability both of this statement and of the database itself have been challenged. Because the information going into the database has not been subjected to quality control, duplicate entries are very common. David Jennings, in an article entitled "How many CDs are there in the world?" gives an example of a six-CD set in which "two of the six CDs appear twice in the database, and one appears three times." An article on the AtomicPop website cites Ty Roberts, chief technology officer of Gracenote, as saying that there are approximately 500,000 individual CD titles commercially released and available for sale today in the United States. ] Gracenote claims that its database contains information on almost 4 million CDs. The reliability both of this statement and of the database itself have been challenged. Because the information going into the database has not been subjected to quality control, duplicate entries are very common. David Jennings, in an article entitled "How many CDs are there in the world?" gives an example of a six-CD set in which "two of the six CDs appear twice in the database, and one appears three times." An article on the AtomicPop website cites Ty Roberts, chief technology officer of Gracenote, as saying that there are approximately 500,000 individual CD titles commercially released and available for sale today in the United States.


==Lawsuits== ==Lawsuits==

In ], Gracenote sued ] for breach of contract when Roxio tried to switch to ], allegedly violating its contract with Gracenote in the process. The case was settled in ]. Though terms were not disclosed, Roxio acknowledged that it had renewed its license to use Gracenote's service. The commercialization of CDDB by Gracenote also caused friction with its former licensees. In ], Gracenote sued ] for breach of contract when Roxio tried to switch to ]. The case was settled in ].


====Gracenote v. Musicmatch==== ====Gracenote v. Musicmatch====


In ], Gracenote sued another former licensee, ], for breach of contract and patent violations. Musicmatch filed a counter-suit against Gracenote. The Northern District Court in California ruled on ], ] in favor of Musicmatch. The case was settled in ] after Musicmatch received summary judgement on all of Gracenote's patent claims.
⚫ In ], Gracenote filed suit in the Northern District Court in Oakland, California, against ], another former licensee, for breach of contract and patent violations. Musicmatch filed a counter-suit against Gracenote. A summary judgement found that Musicmatch's CDDB replacement service does not violate Gracenote's patents. The court also found significant evidence that Gracenote may have obtained its patents fraudulently. In a subsequent bench trial, the court found largely in favor of Gracenote, citing no evidence of fraudulent activity on Gracenote's part. Additionally, the court reversed its findings on numerous points in the summary judgement. The case was to have continued on to to a jury trial to determine whether Music Match was in violation of its contract with Gracenote. The case was dropped by both sides during jury selection when Yahoo, one of Gracenote's customers, announced its pending purchase of MusicMatch. A summarized overview of the case is available at the website within Mr. Robert D. Becker's list of representative cases. Mr. Becker was one of Musicmatch's lawyers during the case.

⚫ A summary judgement found that Musicmatch's CDDB replacement service does not violate Gracenote's patents. The court also found significant evidence that Gracenote may have obtained its patents fraudulently. is available online. A summarized overview of the case is available at the website within Mr. Robert D. Becker's list of representative cases. Mr. Becker was one of Musicmatch's lawyers during the case.

⚫ Gracenote's loss in the Musicmatch case has opened the market for competition, and a growing group of companies continue to enter media identification and metadata marketplace.


⚫ ==Competition==
⚫ A growing group of companies continue to enter media identification and metadata marketplace.


⚫ Many of Gracenote's small former licensees moved to non-commercial services such as ] because of restrictive terms and anger over the privatization of the company. Several large commercial licensees dropped Gracenote's service, such as ]'s ] and ], and have moved to the commercial service provided by ].
⚫ ==Competition==
⚫ Many of Gracenote's small former licensees moved to non-commercial services such as ], citing claims of restrictive terms and anger over the privatization of the company. At least one large commercial licensees dropped Gracenote's service, such as ]. Some have subsequently switched back to Gracenote, after the ] founders parted ways over a dispute about commercializing their service.


The ] media recognition service allows for the recognition of DVDs and digital audio files such as MP3s, as well as CD recognition, and directly competes with Gracenote in the software and embedded device markets globally. The ] media recognition service was launched in late 2004 by ]. The service allows for the recognition of DVDs and digital audio files such as MP3s, as well as CD recognition, and directly competes with Gracenote in the software and embedded device markets globally.


] is also another music identification service that is open source and created by community contributions. ] is also another music identification service that is open source and created by community contributions.

Revision as of 00:48, 10 September 2006

For grace notes in music, see grace note.

Gracenote is a commercial enterprise which maintains and licenses a database containing information about the contents of audio CDs. The database is accessible online over the Internet. As of 2005 many computer software applications that are capable of playing CDs use Gracenote's CDDB or similar services such as All Media Guide's AMG LASSO, or open-source projects such as freedb and MusicBrainz. These programs generally offer the option of contributing track listings, and most of the track listings in the Gracenote database are voluntary contributions by individual users of CD-player software.

Background

Gracenote began in 1993 as an open source project involving a CD player program named xmcd and an associated database named CDDB. xmcd and CDDB were created by Ti Kan and Steve Scherf. Because CDs do not generally contain any digitally-encoded information about their contents (see CD-Text), Kan and Scherf developed software which identifies and looks up CDs based on TOC information stored at the beginning of each disc. A TOC, or Table of Contents, is a list of offsets corresponding to the start of each track on a CD. The matching is fuzzy and tolerates some variation in track offsets.

Some computer users who have copied vinyl LPs from their turntables onto CD-Rs have been astonished to find their computers correctly displaying the titles and track listings when these CD-Rs are played on their computer. This happens when a commercial CD is a remastered version of an LP, containing the same tracks in the same order. If the track offsets of the homemade CD match the track timings of the commercial CD to within a second, the CDDB database can identify the CD successfully.

Commercialization and controversy

In 1998, Kan and Scherf incorporated CDDB into a privately held company with investment from Escient, a high-tech venture firm. CDDB was then renamed Gracenote. The maneuver was and remains controversial, because the CDDB database was and is built on the voluntary submission of CD track data by thousands of individual users, who received no compensation for their work. Initially, most of these were users of the xmcd CD player program. The xmcd program itself was an open-source, GPL project, and many listing contributors assumed that the database was free as well. However, at some point the code for xmcd was modified to append copyright notices to all submissions. How visible or open this was to contributors remains a matter of debate. Many contributors of track listings were angered at the transfer of these listings to a profit-making entity which proceeded to make money by charging license fees for access to a database of track listings which individuals had contributed for free.

As of 2005 Gracenote claims that its database contains information on almost 4 million CDs. The reliability both of this statement and of the database itself have been challenged. Because the information going into the database has not been subjected to quality control, duplicate entries are very common. David Jennings, in an article entitled "How many CDs are there in the world?" gives an example of a six-CD set in which "two of the six CDs appear twice in the database, and one appears three times." An article on the AtomicPop website cites Ty Roberts, chief technology officer of Gracenote, as saying that there are approximately 500,000 individual CD titles commercially released and available for sale today in the United States.

Lawsuits

The commercialization of CDDB by Gracenote also caused friction with its former licensees. In 2000, Gracenote sued Roxio for breach of contract when Roxio tried to switch to freedb. The case was settled in 2001.

Gracenote v. Musicmatch

In 2002, Gracenote sued another former licensee, Musicmatch, for breach of contract and patent violations. Musicmatch filed a counter-suit against Gracenote. The Northern District Court in California ruled on August 26, 2004 in favor of Musicmatch. The case was settled in 2004 after Musicmatch received summary judgement on all of Gracenote's patent claims.

A summary judgement found that Musicmatch's CDDB replacement service does not violate Gracenote's patents. The court also found significant evidence that Gracenote may have obtained its patents fraudulently. The court order is available online. A summarized overview of the case is available at the Manatt website within Mr. Robert D. Becker's list of representative cases. Mr. Becker was one of Musicmatch's lawyers during the case.

Gracenote's loss in the Musicmatch case has opened the market for competition, and a growing group of companies continue to enter media identification and metadata marketplace.

Competition

Many of Gracenote's small former licensees moved to non-commercial services such as freedb because of restrictive terms and anger over the privatization of the company. Several large commercial licensees dropped Gracenote's service, such as Microsoft's Windows Media Player and Musicmatch Jukebox, and have moved to the commercial service provided by All Media Guide.

The AMG LASSO media recognition service was launched in late 2004 by All Media Guide. The service allows for the recognition of DVDs and digital audio files such as MP3s, as well as CD recognition, and directly competes with Gracenote in the software and embedded device markets globally.

MusicBrainz is also another music identification service that is open source and created by community contributions.

External links

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