I actually would like to know how to modify librespot to do so, since I am not a developer or know any Rust at all. Thus this project seems useful to me.
Yes please. :)
@dang if you're reading this, please delete this listing, Thanks.
Regardless of terminology, you’re breaking rules set by someone else and doing something because you feel entitled to do it. Even if the original file doesn’t change you’re taking possession of something you don’t have the right to possess.
Go nuts. It doesn’t fundamentally matter at all. But don’t try to loophole your way out of a situation that is very clear.
But fundamentally you and I both know that Spotify has made rules that say you can’t write a script to download all the songs as MP3s or OGGs or whatever.
If you want to break those rules, go nuts. But don’t hide behind terminology. You’re taking something somebody else doesn’t want you to have because you feel like you’re entitled to it.
Just fucking own it.
If you think that's immoral or should be illegal, it's a separate discussion. The point here is that for that discussion to be had the distinction needs to be made.
You are taking possession of something you don’t have rights from the original owner to possess. This is true even when the original thing remains unchanged.
Again, I’m not interested in debating the definition of theft/piracy/copying/whatever. It’s a very tired argument made by people who want to validate their decisions and actions.
Just say, “I don’t care. I’ve talked myself into thinking there’s no issue with me doing this so I’m going to do it.” The lengths people will go to argue the semantics of this shows me how clear the issue really is.
#218: "Sometimes what you get free costs entirely too much".
Lesson learned.
https://github.com/librespot-org/librespot/blob/650d41b02069...
.set_system_information_string(format!("librespot_{}_{}", version::SHA_SHORT, version::BUILD_ID));
Then it would be more of an exercise of finding clients behaving in an odd way that's not mapping to an official client. That's way harder to detect though.
Trying to pretend to be an official client was a game I never wanted to play. There's so many tiny differences in the way I've implemented the protocol it would be trivial for Spotify to notice this if they wanted to. It then becomes an whack a mole game between them and us.
Spotify is fully aware of librespot and has tolerated it so far. If they change their minds are try to block it it would be the end of the road for librespot. This is why, despite repeated requests from users, librespot has never supported free accounts nor downloading files in order to avoid pissing Spotify off. I always knew it would be trivial for anyone to implement this using the librespot source code, but it makes me a bit sad someone actually did it.
(That being said, I personally don't contribute or use librespot anymore, so really I don't care)
Currently dealing with this with a project of mine, it's hard to see people take and "abuse it", but there's nothing you can do really - licenses don't stop anyone.
It's not useful for acquiring files for your personal collection.