Not all hope is lost: 14 years later, I just found
gnudb (
http://www.gnudb.org/) via
Qmmp.
In 2006 gnudb.org started hosting the cddb service to make sure that it would stay alive and free. Now 14 years later we have seen that Magix the owner of freedb.org has decided to take the cddb service on freedb down. As we stated in 2006 on gnudb.org "A new home for the freedb.org database to make sure it stays free.", we now have to stay to our promise and do our best to make sure it is available for all the music lovers.
For instructions on how to use it with you favorite player, see
http://www.gnudb.org/howto.php.
Let's see if it can live up to the expectations...