I want to publish a song that I’ve been working on in Audacity 2.0.2. It does not matter so much the output format (though better quality would be nice, I was going to just export an mp3 file).
While publishing a song on a site like Jamendo or SoundCloud, you can release your work under the protection of a Creative Commons license. However, a nice step to complete is to add to the metadata of a music file a “verification link” and a mention of the license under which it was released.
My question: How do you enable “edit protection”? I don’t want someone else to be able to simply open the mp3 player up in Audacity and edit the metadata and change the licensing. Is there any way to prevent this editing?
In other words, are there any settings in Audacity I can apply to prevent future listeners of my music from editing the metadata.
All music can be pirated no matter how well it is protected. The only way to guarantee that it is not illegally copied or edited is to lock it in a safe and bury it under several feet of concrete.
There’s some information here about adding copy protection to WMA format files: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/protectcontent.aspx
but a thought - if ten million people copy (legally or illegally) your recording, then you’re famous. If you have one DRM copy protected file that no-one can be bothered to download, then you’re not famous.
Probably the best thing to do is to add the copyright metadata and not worry about making it difficult to edit. Most people leave the metadata intact.
You can add copyright information in the “comments” section, or you can use other software to add tags, such as “ID3 Tag Editor”.
Thanks Steve. I agree with the points you make. I was more concerned with protecting my work from derivatives. I want people to download it and distribute it, even in the spirit of what you point out in your reply, that’s why I decided to go with the simpler route of releasing it under the Creative Commons (CC).
It had just occurred to me, as I am reading about the process of publishing work under the CC, they mention another step about adding “verification” to your work by putting in reference to the CC and terms of release in the metadata. Then I search and find how to do this in Audacity (which even prompts you to fill in metadata upon export step), and it’s very easy to edit a file’s metadata (just import and go to the metadata editor). It just made me wonder what was the point of adding verification if anyone who wanted to “steal” your work and pass it off as their own could just simply mess with the metadata.
But I guess even if they do want to derive from your work, they’ll never have the ability to separate the tracks and recombine. Thanks for your response.