Can I post this to askme?

September 17, 2006 6:32 PM

I want to post a question in the green about finding mp3 copies of This American Life or someplace where folks swap CDs of programs. We're headed back to Italy in October and I'd like to load some shows on my iRiver for the long flight.

I've googled for the past half hour and I'm half-crosseyed from all the conflicting opinions I've read about the producers of the show urging folks to remove links from their websites during the "deep linking" fiasco-lite over the summer.

The upshot is this - would I be asking an illegal-activities-war3z-type question? Cause I don't want to sully my good name...
posted by ersatzkat to Etiquette/Policy at 6:32 PM (8 comments total)

If you're asking a question about finding something for free that the producers of the content want you to pay for, then that's usually not kosher. You might want to talk to my friend Jared about your problem however. He was the one who was pointing to and podcasting a lot of the MP3s originally.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:34 PM on September 17, 2006

Given that TAL has a pretty well-developed pay-per-download program, I assume that you are looking for something free. Also given that they have a wel-developed pay-per-download program, I assume that anything free is "stealing," etc, whatever you want to call it.

As they are a totally cool operation, I would not be motivated to help you. I'd even be inclined to say that yes, your request would be out of place entirely, here.
posted by scarabic at 6:37 PM on September 17, 2006

You might want to look around, as I seem to remember a very similar question having been asked before...

apologies if you've done so already
posted by hototogisu at 6:50 PM on September 17, 2006

Any quick search of this site for questions regarding TAL and how to aquire free downloads of its entire stock should satisfy any issues you have, mate. If it's a moral issue for you, don't download it for free.
posted by hugsnkisses at 6:58 PM on September 17, 2006

jessamyn - thanks, I won't post it.

and I really did search first - there was a lot of discussion about how to record the TAL RealAudio stream (presumably while it was available for pay via Audible), and some talk about the conversion to streaming mp3, and lots of web chatter about the deep linking question - I wasn't fishing here, I was truly asking, and I'll just email jessamyn or mathowie next time
posted by ersatzkat at 7:15 PM on September 17, 2006

TAL is available from Audible, I think. Last time I checked they had an intro offer which got you some free stuff off the bat.
posted by dobbs at 8:07 PM on September 17, 2006

they are available on iTunes as well. According to this page Apple is in the process of changing the price on all shows to $.95 - I noticed checking the iTms that most were still 3.95 but many were now .95 per show. You have to search audiobooks titles for this american life (is anyone else just routinely infuriated by how stupid and useless iTunes search setup is?)
posted by nanojath at 11:14 PM on September 17, 2006

w/r/t to Jared (redjar), it is a crime that CBC's Wiretap is not podcast. Thanks for the episodes you mirrored before the CBC spoiled the fun. (And as they aren't selling it for anything anywhere else and as the program is taxpayer funded and broadcast for free around the world, the whole stealing thing is not applicable.)
posted by Mid at 1:18 PM on September 18, 2006