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why wouldn't a band want people to share their videos? I could understand if they were a primary source of revenue for the band, but as far as I know they're not. These days it's not like someone's going to go to thr trouble of ripping the audio out of a video stream to obtain an illegal copy of the song (since there are other, easier ways to do that), so all in all it's just free publicity.

BearShare comes with a bundled copy of SaveNow. The installer explicitly mentions this. Removing it is as simple as killing the process and running the SaveNow uninstaller from Add/Remove Programs, and doing so has no impact on BearShare's usability. I'm no fan of these bundled apps, but this is far from spyware and even malware is a stretch. BearShare is extremely up-front about exactly what is going to be installed, that's a lot more than you can say for many of these apps.

BTW, I haven't RTFA but BearShare is still alive and kicking and you can even still download the installer. As long as people still have the client, the RIAA hasn't "shut down" anything.

BearShare comes with a bundled copy of SaveNow. The installer explicitly mentions this. Removing it is as simple as killing the process and running the SaveNow uninstaller from Add/Remove Programs, and doing so has no impact on BearShare's usability. I'm no fan of these bundled apps, but this is far from spyware and even malware is a stretch. BearShare is extremely up-front about exactly what is going to be installed, that's a lot more than you can say for many of these apps.

BTW, I haven't RTFA but BearShare is still alive and kicking and you can even still download the installer. As long as people still have the client, the RIAA hasn't "shut down" anything.

http://www.bearshare.com/

d/l of bs clinet still active too.. as of 12:37PM PST

1. Emule - This is one of the best we found out there. Hint (Search for server.met on google to update your server list)

2. Bearshare - Nice Gnutella client, lots of good hits

3. Limewire - Another Gnutella client. It even works on the Mac!

4. Shareaza - A beautiful Gnutella client with no spyware.

5. BitTorrent - Perfect for downloading movies, or that latest linux distro

6. KaZaa - Old favorite. Oh yea - Aussie users, you can't download - Yea Right!

7. Azureus - BitTorrent client that works on Mac, Linux, and Windows 8. Morpheus - Wow. They are still around? Wha happened!

9. Gnucleus - Open source Gnutella for you freeloading open source hippies out there - Yea I am talking about you

10. Napster - Ah, just put this one here to see if you are still reading, and I guess for shits and grins too

So there you have it folks. These are slim pickings. Get um while they still work!

Because the bears got there first.

Back under the bridge, troll.

To start with, this guy didn't even -post- the links. What he did was more akin to putting up a bulletin board in a public place, on which anyone could post, and when someone posted something which -might be- illegal (please note that the legality of BitTorrent, edonkey, etc. sites are still very much a grey area, they don't host -content-), he was busted because he put up the board.

Have a look here. Well look at that, I just linked to a site which contains a program which contains illegal content. Am I a criminal for that?

But wait, that's not even the question. Here's what it IS: Are the people who run Slashdot liable for running a public board to which anyone can post, on which someone did post, a link to a site which contains a program which can be used to find copyrighted files?

Just to what degree of ridiculousness do you think this whole thing should be taken? You already refer to copyright infringement as "theft", when the two are not equivalent. Theft involves depriving someone else of real property in order that you might use it yourself-i.e., if I break into and hotwire your car, I have stolen it. Copyright infringement involves making a copy without permission-i.e., if I copy your post on another site, I have infringed your copyright to it. But I'd like to hear you defend that I've "stolen" it.

Come back when you have a cogent argument that copyright is -good- for anyone but the oligopoly that makes sickening amounts of money from it. Copyright used to be defensible under the "incentive to disseminate the work" rationale-and still is, FOR THOSE WORKS FOR WHICH THERE IS A NECESSARY COST of distribution. For others, however, no incentive is needed to disseminate-in fact, people will continue to distribute even given PENALTIES for doing so. Copyright was NEVER intended to guarantee corporate profits.

"The problem is communication and perhaps marketing. How is Joe User supposed to know Bearshare is spyware but eMule isn't?"

Honest, this isn't a troll, but:

Emule
# Development Status: 4 - Beta, 5 - Production/Stable
# Intended Audience: End Users/Desktop
# License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
# Operating System: 32-bit MS Windows (95/98), 32-bit MS Windows (NT/2000/XP), All 32-bit MS Windows (95/98/NT/2000/XP), Win2K, WinXP
# Programming Language: C++
# Topic: File Sharing

Bearshare
The license granted under this Agreement prohibits you from doing any of the following...

The message seems to be quite clear - you can trust GPL software. As you say, it's a marketing problem. I didn't know anything about those two fileshare programs until a moment ago, but a quick look at the license for each strongly suggests which one is trustworthy.

BearShare has an EULA with restrictions on use, eMule has an optional distribution license, with no restrictions on use. If anyone is teaching relatives how to recognise trustworthy software, this is one good test to let people know about.

How is Joe User supposed to know BearShare is spyware but eMule isn't?

I work for MetaMachine, authors of eDonkey. I find it rather funny that we don't have a copy of this letter...

I expect you will receive one soon, as eDonkey was listed, I believe, (along with the company I work for, BearShare) as being intended recipients.

We will both receive one soon, probably hand delivered. =)
-dave-

Doesn't bearshare still have spyware embedded?

And,

All of that is great Dave, but Bearshare has spyware in it [...]

We are releasing a new version of BearShare, BearShare Lite, that is not bundled with any adware at all. You can download the latest version here.

No adware of any kind.

As always, our 3rd party adware supported version will remain available, with slightly higher limits on the "stress" you can place on the network, in terms of query rates, etc.

And, our adware supported versions have always functioned without the 3rd party adware components. In fact, we never tried to hide this fact. Uninstall scripts are included with both of the adware components we have used.

In any case, that shouldn't be a reason not to use BearShare Lite, just follow the above link.

Don't forget he just admitted to filing for a software patent.

My personal view on SW patents != my employers view, necessarily. They see this as a valuable opportunity/asset for the business. I can't say I blame them, regardless of whether I agree with them.
I'm sure you could say the same for IBM programmers, for instance.

Hardly qualifies as spyware, IMO. Save and Weathercast IIRC. Both easily disabled with firewall and a quick trip to the add/remove CP in Windows (although repeat when upgrading). Not to mention they're pretty upfront about it. Guy's gotta make a few bucks somehow, and Bearshare has been rock solid (thanks Dave). Wouldn't use anything else for general P2P.

Thanks a bunch!

I wish I could take all the credit, but of course I am just one of a team of highly skilled coworkers who make it all possible. They are just great, and will continue to improve BearShare daily.

Thanks for the replies, all!

-dave-

I file trading is peer-to-peer (decentralized) how can some central "authority" know what's going on?

Glad you asked.

The company I work for, FreePeers Inc, faced this same problem about 2 years ago.

At that time, I invented a statistics gathering scheme that took full advantage of the decentralized nature of p2p networks.

Previously, the client/server scheme was superimposed upon networks (see Limewire's network crawler, for instance, which contacts every node it can to count them).

My invention takes advantage of the nature of the network itself as a routing/aggregation tool to gather statistics for me,and let the results "ebb" thier way to our collector.

See the public results here.

Interesting to note is that we are running our aggregator node on a cable modem, and yet still get "round trip times" for measuring stats on the whole network of 5 minutes. This could even be reduced to about 2 minutes for our current network size.

In any case, the problem you describe (central counting of decentralized p2p info, such as network count or bytes transferred in a given time) is solved, and our company is awaiting a patent on it.

It does work well. We are running the aggregator on a 256Kbps cable modem (as I said above) but the BW usage is so rediculously low that it could be run on a dialup 56k modem, if only we had any in our office! With it we can accurately collect lots of good statistics about our network, and update it every 5 mins.

Each of those graphs in the linked to page is clickable, and will show more details.

-dave-

Use BearShare for all your p2p needs.

I file trading is peer-to-peer (decentralized) how can some central "authority" know what's going on?

Glad you asked.

The company I work for, FreePeers Inc, faced this same problem about 2 years ago.

At that time, I invented a statistics gathering scheme that took full advantage of the decentralized nature of p2p networks.

Previously, the client/server scheme was superimposed upon networks (see Limewire's network crawler, for instance, which contacts every node it can to count them).

My invention takes advantage of the nature of the network itself as a routing/aggregation tool to gather statistics for me,and let the results "ebb" thier way to our collector.

See the public results here.

Interesting to note is that we are running our aggregator node on a cable modem, and yet still get "round trip times" for measuring stats on the whole network of 5 minutes. This could even be reduced to about 2 minutes for our current network size.

In any case, the problem you describe (central counting of decentralized p2p info, such as network count or bytes transferred in a given time) is solved, and our company is awaiting a patent on it.

It does work well. We are running the aggregator on a 256Kbps cable modem (as I said above) but the BW usage is so rediculously low that it could be run on a dialup 56k modem, if only we had any in our office! With it we can accurately collect lots of good statistics about our network, and update it every 5 mins.

Each of those graphs in the linked to page is clickable, and will show more details.

-dave-

Use BearShare for all your p2p needs.

I file trading is peer-to-peer (decentralized) how can some central "authority" know what's going on?

Glad you asked.

The company I work for, FreePeers Inc, faced this same problem about 2 years ago.

At that time, I invented a statistics gathering scheme that took full advantage of the decentralized nature of p2p networks.

Previously, the client/server scheme was superimposed upon networks (see Limewire's network crawler, for instance, which contacts every node it can to count them).

My invention takes advantage of the nature of the network itself as a routing/aggregation tool to gather statistics for me,and let the results "ebb" thier way to our collector.

See the public results here.

Interesting to note is that we are running our aggregator node on a cable modem, and yet still get "round trip times" for measuring stats on the whole network of 5 minutes. This could even be reduced to about 2 minutes for our current network size.

In any case, the problem you describe (central counting of decentralized p2p info, such as network count or bytes transferred in a given time) is solved, and our company is awaiting a patent on it.

It does work well. We are running the aggregator on a 256Kbps cable modem (as I said above) but the BW usage is so rediculously low that it could be run on a dialup 56k modem, if only we had any in our office! With it we can accurately collect lots of good statistics about our network, and update it every 5 mins.

Each of those graphs in the linked to page is clickable, and will show more details.

-dave-

Use BearShare for all your p2p needs.

"Abu Ghraib prisoners were abused, not tortured like they were when Saddam was in power. Their abusers should and will be punished. Their is a fine line between abuse and torture."

Please read the report that the army put out and then go check out some foreign news sources.

Got a link or are you spreading FUD?

As a Gnutella (p2p) developer, when this story first broke, and I noticed the US media was only showing a few quick pictures, and then rapidly playing down the story (after the first week or so), I decided to circumvent the general media and locate any info, pictures, movies, etc about this horrible torture.

magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:H2JZDN62ZY7VIYTU6IH567N3ZZESHI TH&dn=The%20Abu%20Ghraib%20Prison%20Photos.pdf
Sorry it isn't clickable, but slashdot doesn't like magnets, apparently. Anyway, remove all spaces then use the above.

There is a link to an extensive collection of pics showing the torture, rape, and abuse that US Servicemen/women committed with our (well, US) taxdollars paying for it.

I have since been mirroring this content on my own p2p node at home, work, and anywhere else I can.

I think that it is VERY important for Joe Sixpack to be able to see the whole picture of what happened and what they paid for, not just the "least offensive" pics shown by the media.

I am sharing TONS of info, just search for "ABU GHRAIB" on gnutella, or possibly fasttrack p2p networks.

More resources there than you could imagine.

The link I made above will work with BearShare, or most Gnutella p2p apps.

Please take the few moments necessary and download the complete set of pictures and info so you know what really happens with our dollars, when there is no general accountability.

I can only imagine what is going on in our lovely Cuban prison now.

May $DIETY have mercy on us ignorant, apethetic Americans who pay for this abuse!

-dave-

For a last proof of how the campain is not working, just fire up your P2P app and look for popular music. A recent example was the soundtrack to Shrek 2, which had about 50-60 people sharing per track when I was looking. These numbers do not seem to be declining, so while the story of your friend is interesting it's the exception rather than the rule.

Clarification:

I will grant you that according to our own statistics, p2p usage is rising, and doesn't appear to be in immediate danger.

However, in terms of swaying the minds and oppinions of people whom haven't yet used the technology (still, most americans haven't) they are fairly successful.

The typical person I encounter who thinks p2p isn't stealing and isn't immoral has used p2p themselves, and they are still (unfortunately) in the minority. The other group who doesn't think it is immoral or stealing tends to be those people who haven't heard anything about the technology, and thanks to TV News snippents, that group has declined to a much smaller pool, instead filling the "I only know what I saw on the news last night, and the news said its illegal" pool with bunches of people.

All that said, I don't think RIAA will win the fight (slowing growth != stopping growth) and I don't fear too much for my job dissapearing at thier hands.

Now, Orrin Hatch I see as a more significant threat, as he threatens to criminalize my work outright, to save the children of this country from "exploitation".

-dave-

Gnutella developers have complained that Shareaza's Gnutella implementation is outdated & that it wrongly sends tons of "Gnutella2" packets to clients that don't want them.

No kidding! (Disclaimer, IAA Gnutella Developer)

I myself am in the process of adding Udp support to BearShare, and right outta the gate, various Shareaza nodes begin blasting tons of unsolicited "Mike's Protocol Udp packets" at me.

Granted, there is a generic problem of random traffic when using Udp, but I don't see "random traffic", I see "lots of unsolicited Non-Gnutella, Udp MikeProtocol packets".

Grrr...
Not to mention the appropriation of the well-known name "gnutella" for a non-gnutella protocol.

No, in short, Shareaza is more a "jack of all trades" that never (IMHO) had really great support for any of the protocols it implemented.

From my own experience, at least, the Gnutella and BitTorrent implementations aren't that great, and tend to lag pretty severly behind the mono-network clients. Can't really speak from personal experience with the ED2k and MP side, though. For all I know, those implementations work well enough.

-dave-

The search is done on a server, and the server is able to (and probably already does) log who searches for what.

Not in MY p2p client!

-dave-

The network operators could easily log the names of files that are being downloaded. They don't, because that information could be subpeonaed, and it would give clear indication that Kazaa is a copyrighted music/video swapping tool.

Let me be the first one to educate you then, as a professional in the p2p field.

For our business, there wouldn't be any way we could do this.

For Kazaa (who is about 10x or more our network size) this wouldn't be possible!

P2p software generally doesn't contact a central server for each file downloaded.

That would place a load on the central, logging server which is proportional to the number of file transfers!

The benefit of p2p is that it is distributed, and DOESN'T (or shouldn't) place a proportional load in this fashion.

That's like saying that we can use an internal combustion engine (efficient) but should restrict ourselves to horse&buggy (innefficient) because some external 3rd party says so.

I work developing imporvements to p2p technology, and coming up with great (hopefully) uses of the distributed nature of this network.

One such application for this is the collection of network statistics.

We can collect some fascinating stuff without paying a "penalty" proportional to network size or files transferred! In fact, the "central" penalty is constant!

Without this technology, we couldn't possibly collect accurate, rapid data from thousands or millions of clients. Why? The costs would be proportional, not constant!!

You are asking Kazaa to foot the bill for a PROPORTIONAL technology, not a CONSTANT-priced one. This could be the change from "profitable, self-sustaining, & improving" and "unprofitable, unrealistic, arcaic client/server only"

Although Kazaa is a direct competitor of ours, I must stick by them here. Asking them to build a proportional, central system is not practical, especially simply to placate a 3rd party like this.

NOTE: RIAA had plenty of oppertunity to implement such a system with their OWN $$$. Why should they be able to require that Kazaa spend Kazaa's $$$ on this, when it would only benefit RIAA, and only cripple the nice thing about p2p: decentralization.

That's my thoughts, and I am sticking by them.

-dave-

It's certainly amusing, but they have no serious legal leg to stand on which I can see. And why sue for copyright infringement of all things, besides the irony factor? You might be able to get something on them for breaking the TOS, [...]

Get the facts first... but then, this is Slashdot.

NOTE: IANAL but IAAP2pD(eveloper). Our EULA specifically forbids using our software for the purposes of identifying users for legal action. Also, specific companies and known agents of RIAA/MPAA are explicitly barred from usage of our software. Violating this clause of the terms results in revoced license, and any continued useage (perhaps even continued possession) may be in violation of civil law.

Apparently, they have no legal right to use the copyrighted material, according to the copyright-law view presented in lawsuits that they themselves file.

Personally, I think this is peotic justice, and (if EULAs can be upheld) they should probably win.
Of course, EULAs and the like shouldn't really be enforceable IMHO, and this will just further illustrate and compound the problems in "patchwork" laws created by the introduction of the Internet.

-dave-

(Shameless Plug) Use BearShare for all your p2p needs.

As a major developer of one of the world's leading Gnutella clients this data is old, untimely, and really not "new news" to anyone involved in Gnutella.

Much of this data is based upon estimates & reported crawler (ha!) data.

Want some real, hardcore data about Gnutella (or at least the BearShare portion of it)?

I invented a revolutionary distributed stats system that is in place in the latest versions of BearShare. No more guessing about p2p network information, like transfer bandwidth, etc. Try checking out some of my results.

This data is collected from the network, in a brand new, distributed, 'polled-not-crawled' scheme with remarkably fast turnaround times on data (new data points every 5 mins, on average).

Much, if not all, of this in the above report information is actively being summarrized for Gnutella (again, the BearShare portion at least) and some early (non-automated graphing) of the results can be found in the above links.
Expect (some of) this data (like node count, shared files/bytes, etc) to be available on our website (in real time) soon.

Kinda interesting...
In any case , story data is not novel any more, certainly not timely. =)

I like my data collections much better.

-dave-

As a major developer of one of the world's leading Gnutella clients this data is old, untimely, and really not "new news" to anyone involved in Gnutella.

Much of this data is based upon estimates & reported crawler (ha!) data.

Want some real, hardcore data about Gnutella (or at least the BearShare portion of it)?

I invented a revolutionary distributed stats system that is in place in the latest versions of BearShare. No more guessing about p2p network information, like transfer bandwidth, etc. Try checking out some of my results.

This data is collected from the network, in a brand new, distributed, 'polled-not-crawled' scheme with remarkably fast turnaround times on data (new data points every 5 mins, on average).

Much, if not all, of this in the above report information is actively being summarrized for Gnutella (again, the BearShare portion at least) and some early (non-automated graphing) of the results can be found in the above links.
Expect (some of) this data (like node count, shared files/bytes, etc) to be available on our website (in real time) soon.

Kinda interesting...
In any case , story data is not novel any more, certainly not timely. =)

I like my data collections much better.

-dave-

As a major developer of one of the world's leading Gnutella clients this data is old, untimely, and really not "new news" to anyone involved in Gnutella.

Much of this data is based upon estimates & reported crawler (ha!) data.

Want some real, hardcore data about Gnutella (or at least the BearShare portion of it)?

I invented a revolutionary distributed stats system that is in place in the latest versions of BearShare. No more guessing about p2p network information, like transfer bandwidth, etc. Try checking out some of my results.

This data is collected from the network, in a brand new, distributed, 'polled-not-crawled' scheme with remarkably fast turnaround times on data (new data points every 5 mins, on average).

Much, if not all, of this in the above report information is actively being summarrized for Gnutella (again, the BearShare portion at least) and some early (non-automated graphing) of the results can be found in the above links.
Expect (some of) this data (like node count, shared files/bytes, etc) to be available on our website (in real time) soon.

Kinda interesting...
In any case , story data is not novel any more, certainly not timely. =)

I like my data collections much better.

-dave-

Anyone interested in your own copy can get it here from this dedicated node:

magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:6Y6QZNUNME3IWZJZVIVJB3ZXLHHN6Q 4F&xs=http://208.239.77.179:6310/uri-res/N2R?urn:s ha1:6Y6QZNUNME3IWZJZVIVJB3ZXLHHN6Q4F&dn=Who%20Will %20Seize%20Control%20of%20Our%20Country%20-%20Top% 20Secret%20Diebold%20Memos%20-%20Election%20Voting %20Fraud%20-%20Vote%20Memos%20electronic%20voting. tgz%20errors%20steal%20votes%20miscount%20miscount ed%20recount%20mp3%20mpg%20avi%20mpeg%20asf%20zip% 20tar%20illegal.tgz

Copy and paste that entire magnet link into your web browser's URL window.

Slashdot inserts spaces every 50 letters in that URL, so you may have to trim the spaces back out.

Note: You must be using a Magnet-capable program, like BearShare, Shareaza, etc, for this link to work.

-dave-

Gee, that gives me an idea... what about a P2P app that only gives downloaders access to a part of the file, while making sure another peer elsewhere share the other parts. The client downloads and merges them automatically, of course, but the shares are never, at any time, providing access to a complete file. Coordinating who shares what might be difficult, maybe those with odd-numbered IP get to share parts 1 and 3, and the even-numbered share part 2 and 4 from a file chopped up into 4 bits? I wonder how lawsuit-proof this idea would be. ;-)

Ya know, this is what I call the atomiticity issue (don't know the legal term), and I have been tugging [plug]behind the scenes[/shameless] to get this idea used for awhile:

A musical symphony could be protected.

A short musical phrase probably couldn't.

A chord, or the note C#, or the tone 1200hz certainly couldn't, though.

By breaking it up into smaller pieces recursively, common sense dictates that there must be some breaking point, or else All our tone are belong to them!

Others here have been less enthusiastic, though.
We'll see.

-dave-

"KaZaA has done an incredible job of attracting young people to their site, and as a result they have been really able to attack children."(emphasis mine)

Give me a break...
I had to laugh when i read this though.

It examined 157 files downloaded in response to three search terms of interest to children -- Britney, Pokemon and Olsen twins. It classified 49 percent of those files as pornographic.

2 things.

1) Britney... No kiddin. Look to MTV for the reasons there! I believe that many outraged people (who wrote piles of letters to newspapers) would consider the 2-second kiss to be of that nature.

2) So, the lessons to be learned here are:

a) Files can have misleading search information associated with them, and
b) Some people will use "common" search terms to attract attention to specific files that have no association with them.

A study in March by the General Accounting Office found that KaZaA would be effective for someone looking for child pornography. The agency searched for 12 terms associated with child pornography, such as "incest" and "underage." It did not actually download the files it found, but it determined that 42 percent of them had titles or descriptions associated with pornographic images of children. (emphasis mine)

Well of course they say they didn't download them, admitting they did if they did would be a crime.

But wait, didn't we learn from 2a & 2b above that often people use search terms to attract attention to files that don't necessarily have any association, just to generate interest?

Non sequitur and propaganda, plain and simple.
So which US slashgeeks are going to run for office and replace these incompetent people?

Toss the two named terms in google and find dozens of "legitimate" sites seeking the same type of attention.

This is sad.

-dave-

Looking for YOUR peer-to-porn engine? Get it here!

Will they really be allowed to ruin the lives of hundreds (if not thousands, or tens of thousands) of people, just so some execs can make a little more cash? And also, don't college students have a tendency to rebel against things like this? There's going to be a gigantic uprising...

God I hope an uprising is in the works!

Our entire "Intellectual Property" based system that we (US and much of the world) is putting in place will merely continue to entrench the "privileged" in thier positions of privilege.

Large corporations who "own" the polititions will only continue to try and (successfully) force the masses into submission.

Governing by consent of the governed is no longer the case. Instead, it is governing by consent of those who would be most suited to profit by your governing.
We need a revolution of sorts.

Alternatively, we need tech-savvy reps and lawmakers!
I, personally, will vote for anyone who guarantees a priority of drastically reducing or eliminating the entire concept of "Intellectual Property" and the sham of goverment endorsement that accompanies it.

This endorsement is used and abused in situations such as these. Ask any 20 people on the street if a corporation should have the legal rights to behave in the fashion RIAA is. Should anyone have the legal rights that led up to this situation? I say no! There is no good reason that I should repress myself from consuming or otherwise using a piece of information.

Period.

If it can be reduced to bits, then you do NOT own it! Simple as that. Or, say that you "own" it if you want, but you do not own "exclusive rights" to it to the exclusion of others. At least, not any rights that *I* will recognise or support.

I know I am not alone in this either.

Lets get someone in office who agrees with this viewpoint and begin to push back the tide of "Intellectual Enslavement and Combat" that is occuring, waiting for newcomers into the barratry game.

-dave-

Shameless plug:
Use BearShare for all your peer-to-peer needs!

Will they really be allowed to ruin the lives of hundreds (if not thousands, or tens of thousands) of people, just so some execs can make a little more cash? And also, don't college students have a tendency to rebel against things like this? There's going to be a gigantic uprising...

God I hope an uprising is in the works!

Our entire "Intellectual Property" based system that we (US and much of the world) is putting in place will merely continue to entrench the "privileged" in thier positions of privilege.

Large corporations who "own" the polititions will only continue to try and (successfully) force the masses into submission.

Governing by consent of the governed is no longer the case. Instead, it is governing by consent of those who would be most suited to profit by your governing.
We need a revolution of sorts.

Alternatively, we need tech-savvy reps and lawmakers!
I, personally, will vote for anyone who guarantees a priority of drastically reducing or eliminating the entire concept of "Intellectual Property" and the sham of goverment endorsement that accompanies it.

This endorsement is used and abused in situations such as these. Ask any 20 people on the street if a corporation should have the legal rights to behave in the fashion RIAA is. Should anyone have the legal rights that led up to this situation? I say no! There is no good reason that I should repress myself from consuming or otherwise using a piece of information.

Period.

If it can be reduced to bits, then you do NOT own it! Simple as that. Or, say that you "own" it if you want, but you do not own "exclusive rights" to it to the exclusion of others. At least, not any rights that *I* will recognise or support.

I know I am not alone in this either.

Lets get someone in office who agrees with this viewpoint and begin to push back the tide of "Intellectual Enslavement and Combat" that is occuring, waiting for newcomers into the barratry game.

-dave-

Shameless plug:
Use BearShare for all your peer-to-peer needs!

My last post touched on the same ideas: We are moving out of the age of "scarcity-based value" quite rapidly.

It won't be long before you can "print" nearly everything from its atomic components.

We all (as a society) need to carefully consider the implications of the framework we are laying down now:
Single-entity (human, or worse: corporate) monopolistic control of "information" or "Intellectual Property" is leading towards the "worse" end of the spectrum, at least as far as I am concerned.

Call me a hippie, but I'm not.
Call me a communist, but I'm not.
Call me a StarTrek nut, but I'm not.
Call me anything you wish, but I firmly believe that everyone has an inherant (natural) right to use any and all information that enters their person.

This may be too over-the-top for most people, but:
Everyone has a inherant, 'natural' right to use information, including EMF radiation (radio/television signals passing *through* your body), genetic encodings (God help you, Monsonto!), Clever C++ code implementations (patented or not), or whatever.

We need to take back control of our information!

-dave-

Shameless plug:
Use BearShare for all your peer-to-peer needs!

Consider the following:

Product A checks for registration B.
If it finds B, continue. If not, end.
If B, test condition C, and take action D.

If D is too easy to spot (like program fails to load, uninstalls itself, etc) then it becomes OBVIOUS to a hacker that the desireable point of attack is C.
If, however, action D is fairly slight (at least as far as the end user is concerned, and "delayed phone home" counts) then it is *MUCH* more likely that the hacher who cracked the codes for "Registration B" won't notice D, and will therefore release the "partially cracked" program instead of a "fully cracked" one which doesn't do action D.

This is actually pretty simple stuff, and not at ALL original!
heh

-dave-

Help me out, and Use BearShare for all your peer-to-peer needs!

As someone who makes a living writing peer-to-peer software, I completely disagree that "STEALING IS STEALING" as you say.

I don't want to get into semantics with you, but here goes:
Stealing involves the deprivation of someone's property, removing thier ability to benefit from it. (paraphrase)

Information "theft" is not really theft or stealing.

Thousands of my users probably "steal" my software, but guess what! I DON'T CARE! It is information, which I CANNOT OWN!

Noone, corporation or individual, has a right to profit.

Everyone has a NATURAL right to consume and reproduce information. How do I know? Look how we are physically built, for crying out loud!

Let me close with this somewhat fanatical thought: Every month new ground is broken in the attempt to produce objects by piecing them together molecule by molecule.

Now, it will probably take longer than my lifetime to occur, but EVENTUALLY you all will be able build a generic THING from its component molecular pieces.

Consider this "future" world for a moment: No more scarcity, no more hunger, no more epidemics caused by lack of medicines.

Now consider the same world, with *your* "STEALING IS STEALING end of story" claim: Should the first person/company that creates a new molecular structure have a monopolistic control over said structure? Should you be able to produce (from scratch, not by "physically stealing") a replacement Brake Pad for your car without paying Ford for the privelidge? What about creating your very own "claritin-like" substance for your allergies? Should you have to pay Mosanto?

I stated before, and firmly believe, that information wants to be worthless, in an economic sense. Information has no "owner" that I recognize, and, as such, I do not consider the "copying" of information to be "theft".

If someone broke into my office and stole the computer I was writing my source code on, then THAT is theft of information, as it has deprived me of it.

If someone copies (without my permission) my program and uses it without paying me, oh well! I haven't been deprived of anything! I still have my program! The only thing I *may* have lost is potential profits, but NOONE HAS A NATURAL RIGHT TO PROFIT! NOONE!
(Thats why "Step 2: ???" is so common! heh)

In the above "idealistic copying world" example above, noone could profit! There would be no object scarcity, therefore (almost) no intrinsic value to *ANYTHING*, let alone "strictly informational things."

Time to end this rant, but PLEASE PLEASE consider:
The end result of personal "posession & ownership" of information, combined with monopolistic control, and the added "Lets consider artificial entities with the stated goal of financial wealth accumulation (corporations) the same as people, with the same 'rights' to own information, etc, is a CORPORATE FEUDAL SYSTEM, not the (what I consider) ideallic, everything-copying society that we COULD have then.

The road we are starting down today is leading us towards the scarier of the two, I believe.

-vDave-

{dave -at- bearshare -dotcom-}

Help me out, and use BearShare for all of your p2p (INFORMATION COPYING) needs!

This is pure nonsense. There are about 6 different versions of Reloaded floating about online but all the ones I've seen are Telesyncs.

There aren't any screener versions or similar online yet... believe me, I'd have looked!

At the end of the day, I can't imagine any Matrix fans are going to download the movie rather than seeing it on the big screen and/or buying the DVD.

Centropy version is damn good. No heads, voices, etc. True TSync, hi SVCD quality. Almost as good as a screener. Not a thing to knock about it, though.

That one is probably the best of 5 or 6 versions available, of which i have watched 2 others (saw apm and esoteric versions as well).

The funniest thing was reading the article (http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:ndMnHLKK9rAJ :www.silicon.com/news/500019/1/4168.html%3Fet%3Dse arch+have+seen+files+named+Temple+said+articulated +that+MPAA+seen+a+file+on+the+internet+that+actual ly+sequel&hl=en&ie=UTF-8) stating that no real copies of Matrix were online, while I was downloading my 2nd complete, working copy. heh

Anyone saying that "I can't imagine any Matrix fans..." obviously hasn't seen the releases that are available.

-dave-

Blatant ad: Use BearShare client for all your p2p needs!

just like if a fireman pulls a victim from a burning building s/he's a hero, but if John Q. Passerby tries to help he's arrested for tresspassing. Want to show a case proving this? Even vaguely?

In one, a man jumped up(!) to a burning second story building to rescue a trapped dog that was barking for help.

In the second, a man rescued a person.

In both cases, they were arrested, and it made the local news. Now admittedly, they may (and probably will) be aquitted, but this is not the point.

-dave-

Use BearShare for all your p2p needs!

Recall that RIAA didn't appear in 2 years, nor did it generate its power over that time. It took decades for that power and exploitation system to arise.

Here are some that are getting noticed, through p2p.

Generally, they do not have to pay a massive price (through lost profits, etc) for recognition and distribution of their music. It seems to be working QUITE well for them, as well!

Check them out here!

-dave-

Recall that RIAA didn't appear in 2 years, nor did it generate its power over that time. It took decades for that power and exploitation system to arise.

Here are some that are getting noticed, through p2p.

Generally, they do not have to pay a massive price (through lost profits, etc) for recognition and distribution of their music. It seems to be working QUITE well for them, as well!

Check them out here!

-dave-

Or something like that... =)

-dave-
Get BearShare! for your p2p needs!

In addition, the momentary potential for liability existed when the software was transferred from the Company to the User, and then if the Company should have reason to believe that the user will use it for infringing uses. As this information is not available to the Company at the time of software transfer to the User, they were not liable.

Furthurmore, liability does not exist because "those comanies could shut their doors and turn off their computers, and the respective etworks would still work fine."

Quoting from the judgement
"Napster possessed the ability to monitor and control its network, and routinely exercised its ability to exclude particular users from it. id. In a virtual sense, the "premises" of the infringement were the Napster network i teelf and Napster had a duty to exercise its reserved right and ability to police those premises to the fullest extent possible- The client software was an essential component of the integrated Napster system, and Napster s obligation to police necessarily extended to the client software itself. Such is not the case here- Defendants provide software that communicates across networks that are entirely outside Defendants control.

Another *very important* point:
Although it may be possible that a new version of morpheus could have been written (by streamcast) that excluded the ability to locate files with a given fingerprint (a given SHA1, for instance), they would not be required to do so as the content was not being indexed or hosted via that Company's systems.

To quote again:
"However, whether these safeguards are practicable is immaterial to this analysis, as the obligation to \\police" arises only where a defendant has the "right and abilityfl to supervise the infrinqing conduc t . See NaDster , 239 F. 3d at 1023; Fonovisa , 76 F. 3d at 262. Plaintiffs' argument - that Defendants could do more to limit the functionali ty of their software with respect to copyrighted works forgets the critical distinction, broached above, between the Napster systemH and the software distributed by Defendants."

In the case of Grokster , the network is the propriety FastTrack network, which is clearly not controlled by Defendant Grokster. In the case of StreamCast, the network is Gnutella , the open- source nature of which apparently places it outside the control of any single entity."

This is an important decision, which could affect the path of p2p development, and my personal livelihood.
Once again, a very satisfied and relieved
-dave-

Get yourself a legitimate high-preformance Gnutella client here!!

I am *SO* relieved to see a ruling for this case where the technological issues were not so opaque to the judge as to render his verdict senseless.

Of course, an appeal is sure to follow, but today was a great victory.

Thanks EFF! Thanks go out to all the persons and entities (Eff, Limewire, BearShare, etc) that donated time, money, resources, and effort to the assist the defendants in this landmark case.

-dave-

Now go ahead and get yourselves a "Still-Legitimate" kickass Gnutella p2p client here!

In reality, though, I bet that BearShare would work GREAT on this connection!

What an amazingly weak argument! Is _everyone_ supposed to be an arm of the law. People receiving unemployment benefits, people on welfare, people who drive on the interstate roads, people with federally-backed home loans and bank accounts, and on and on, all should become the enforcers of copyright violations by others? Perhaps you should rethink your position.

Reminds me of the "Red Army" in China, doesn't it?
See here for more about the Red Army.

This is not something that should be allowed by US citizens. It must be fought at all costs!

-dave-

Use BearShare for all your p2p, movie, and MP3 needs!

This works if you assume that a "new" or "different" song isn't likely to be a hit.

Listen to the trash being pushed across Clear Channel Radio (US) and the rest, and it isn't that hard to believe...

Too many damn teenage girls who fund the whole thing...

What a shame...

-dave-

Use BearShare for all your p2p, Movie, and MP3 needs!

Funny you should mention this!
And yet my (US) government regularly bombards me with "Anti-drug" or "infect-truth" commercials on radio and television which routinely accuse *me* of actively supporting terrorism when I purchase some joints, or accuse me of "helping to murder this family" (with picture of Mom, Dad, and Child face down on floor, etc)

I guess propeganda is only allowed to be one-way, right?
-dave-

Use BearShare for all your p2p and MP3 needs!

(Woo Hoo my 1st 1st post!)

Use BearShare!

-vdave-

Here is the link

This book was published in 1964, as a childrens mystery book. Not exactly new science.

-dave-

Use BearShare for all your p2p needs!

they would buy advertising on BearShare, LimeWire, Morpheus and the rest.

This is where the most benefit will be realized, isn't it?

I have the same issue when I use BearShare (a Gnutella client). I am thinking it is the noisy protocol eating up resources somewhere. No problems with WinMX....

JOhn

Limewire is behind, in my opinion. It still has not added Remote Queuing (like IRC has, wait in queue slots instead of hammering nodes). And BTW, nearly all contemporary Gnutella clients (Gnucleus, Shareaza, Bearshare, Xolox etc.) have HUGE added.

Shareaza and Bearshare have already added it, and it's working great.

Limewire I would not recommend, Shareaza is probably your best bet on the latest Gnutella Technologies.

The best Gnutella front-end I know of is Bearshare.

As for IRC, I tend to like MIRC as a front-end.

For Usenet, I've used News Binary Extractor.

I'm a government consultant for a large institution on the east coast, known for its strongarm tactics. We have recently been contacted by some of our constituents about this so-called "file sharing" that's a goin' on on the internet. Our job is to put the kabosh on it, tout suite! However, before we lace up the jackboots, we wanted to know what a bunch of college students and open source advocates thought.

What an utterly laughable idea.