Today I noticed an editor was adding a large number of new releases with no source information which I thought couldn’t exist. These ere Eurovision Song Contest compilations for early years, one album per year (e.g.: here, here, here). He was also adding every track as a new recording. I assumed he was just making up releases that didn’t exist, all with dozens of dupes, but he explained the releases were downloaded from Soulseek, and that he would identify and merge the tracks.
The discussion I had with him is here.
So that leaves me with a doubt: can any folder shared on Soulseek, which is just a folder on some person’s computer, be a release? We had a discussion release about torrents, but I think it’s different, because:
- Torrents have a fixed list of files, with a fixed file names. Anyone with that torrrent will get the same files. With this kind of P2P sharing, people just share folders on their computer, the folders can change, files can be added and removed, names can be changed, etc.
- The torrent file includes the list of files and trackers show this information publicly, so you have evidence that this content exists. With this kind of P2P programs, it really is just a folder in some guy’s computer, it can change at any time and disappear as soon as he deletes it or goes offline. There is no evidence it ever existed.
I feel we shouldn’t just take a folder in someone’s computer as a release, especially as there is no way to prove it existed and hasn’t changed — even a “digital bootleg” should have a fixed list of files and a way to prove it exists, — but I know many people here have a more permissive view of these things, so I’d like to hear what you think.