Version: 1.4.5 (using KDE KDE 3.5.5) Installed from: Ubuntu Packages OS: Linux BACKGROUND: Creative Commons[1] provides free/open licenses for non-software content, e.g. text, audio, video, etc. The licenses are currently used by millions of Web sites, music recordings, etc.[2] Amarok has used Creative Commons-licensed content in the past: with the Magnatune integration[3] and the Live CD[4]. Creative Commons offers a suite of licenses which place various restrictions on use, e.g. no commercial use allowed, no derivative works, etc.[5] It is important not only to know that a particular work is available under a Creative Commons licenses, but which license in particular. Creative Commons provides a metadata system for various filetypes[6], including MP3[7] and OGG[8]. These allow software programs to automatically detect the license information and display it in a useful manner to the user. For example, an implementation of this for Web sites is the MozCC plugin for Mozilla Firefox.[9] FEATURE REQUEST: Integrate Creative Commons' metadata system to display license information to users. This could be accomplished via a column in the main panel, and/or a tab under Track Information. For instance, the column could display the license icons. The Track Information tab could list the license's full name and version, a "human readable" summary of the license, and a link to the full license. RECOMMENDATION: Creative Commons has an excellent technical staff[10] who would no doubt be willing to provide advice and answer questions in implementing the licenses. They might even be able to provide staff or intern help in the development. In addition, I think the feature would be great publicity for Amarok. Creative Commons and its many friends would help promote the program. REFERENCES: [1] http://www.creativecommons.org/ [2] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/5861 [3] http://amarok.kde.org/content/view/84/66/ [4] http://amarok.kde.org/wiki/AmaroK_Live [5] http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/meet-the-licenses [6] http://creativecommons.org/technology/usingmarkup [7] http://wiki.creativecommons.org/MP3 [8] http://creativecommons.org/technology/ogg [9] http://wiki.creativecommons.org/MozCC [10] http://creativecommons.org/about/people#21, http://creativecommons.org/about/people#31, http://creativecommons.org/about/people#53
I'm pretty sure that 99% of users wouldn't care about licensing.
I think "99% of users wouldn't care" is perhaps an overstatement. Thousands of Creative Commons-licensed songs have been published on sites like Jamendo, ccMixter, the Internet Archive, Magnatune, Opsound, Fading Ways... See these feature requests for integrating Creative Commons music with Amarok: http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=136035 http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=119682 See also this request for more information about the source of music: http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=139158 Integrating CC licenses will better help users manage their music collections, and affirmatively signal their rights to make re-use of the work. It could also be possible to add support for other open licenses, such as the Free Art Licenses, although I am not sure any others use a metadata system. Also note the presence of features like the BPM (beats per minute) column. How many users tag their music with BPM? Certainly not a large percentage, but for those users who do, this is a useful feature. CC license integration seems rather similar.
I don't think it will be done, at least not in Amarok itself. In Amarok 2 it could be done by external scripts, but we shouldn't code this kind of stuff in the app itself (including BMP).