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I believe KOMPRESSOR crushed them.

Oh, no, wait...

If everyone started downloading legal music instead, we would make short work of the RIAA, because people would start buying CDs from indie bands, and seeing their shows, instead of enriching the major labels every time you buy a Britney or New Kids CD. The RIAA would also have no cause to complain - these music downloads are not copyright violations because the artists give you permission to download them.

Probably the best known site for downloading MP3s is of course MP3.com . See especially their genre index . Click the link. You will be quite astounded at how many genres there are.

Unfortunately the website usability of MP3.com is atrocious, and their streaming audio seems to be buggy - I can't get it to work in either Explorer or Mozilla. To get an MP3 file to download to your hard drive, you have to register, which I'm sure will result in merciless spamming. May I suggest registering with a throwaway email address from spamgourmet ?

The Open Directory Project has Bands and Artists and Styles indices. Not all the artists offer downloads, but the site says they list 48,000 artists and I imagine many of them offer downloads.

There are better sites for hosting MP3s than MP3.com. Some of them allow you to buy the band's CD from the same page as the MP3 download. Among them are The Internet Underground Music Archives, CDBaby, Epitonic.com, Lulu, SoundClick, Matador Records and insound .

Monotonik provides BitTorrents with zip files containing 60 to 100 MP3s apiece available here.

If you prefer the higher quality, patent-free Ogg Vorbis files you can find several download sites here . Ogg Vorbis players are available for many platforms - WinAmp will play them on Windows, and I understand iTunes on Mac OS X supports Ogg now. There are open source Linux ogg players and encoders, even an open source fixed-point decoders for embedded applications where the CPU doesn't have floating point hardware.

There are also peer-to-peer applications for distributing legal music. See Furthur Network and konspire[2b] .

Unfortunately, musicians are often not very good website designers, so poor usability is a significant obstacle to getting music directly from artists' websites. If you're a musician, and you'd like to know how you can improve your website so more people will download your music, please read my article If Indie Musicians Wanted Their Music Heard....

Finally, there is the problem of finding the music that's actually worth listening to. The labels do serve the (somewhat) legitimate purpose of picking out the good from the bad. But we can do that ourselves with legal downloads by using collaborative filtering, for example by downloading our music with iRATE, which you'll find at

If they want unencumbered rights to distribute music, they should get truly independent artists

I can't help but agree with you on this one.

The RIAA has every right to run themselves and thier artists into the ground if they want to.

I wish movements like the Webcaster Alliance would take the reigns in these situations and decide to not play the music that is unfairly offered.

There are more independent artists than contracted artists. Many of these artists rely on mp3 distribution and webcasting to promote the sale of thier CDs and live performances. Use these links to get started.

The RIAA makes me sick, but stealing thier shit or sucking up to them for a better deal is not the way to change things. Instead we should find ways to make them (and thier member companies) irrelevant.

The same way Kazaa, Grokster, Napster and others make money off consumers distribution. Advertisements and other little things.

Do the calculations, artists would actually make more money off this system than the current system because they'd still own their copyrights and would take in 100% of the profits made.

Example1
Example2

Currently artists dont profit at all off distirbution and record sales unless they sell 500,000 records, in the new system even if you sell 1000 records you'd get something because you'd still own the copyright.

Web browser emulates a newspaper.

Web browser emulates a TV.

Web browser emulates a radio.

Web browser emulates a record store.

Web browser emulates a bookstore.

This is a power thing. Only the RIAA will determine what music gets to be popular and what does not. Not the listeners.

I don't know about that... if the RIAA can scare people away from sharing major-label music on P2P networks, the main source of free music on the Internet will be independent musicians. If you buy the argument that free downloads promote CD sales, this might hurt the RIAA in the long run (although I don't think it'll be *that* big).

It's also important to notice that a lot of big-name bands - not just the little ones - are offering full-length, high-quality "previews" of songs - bands like Linkin Park, Jimmy Eat World, and The Dropkick Murphys. In the end, I think the main result of the RIAA trying to kill P2P is that people won't be able to get free music. P2P is certainly a nice way to "sample" music, but there are other ways to expose yourself to new music - anyone use MP3.com, Ampcast, IUMA, or Internet Radio? I don't think P2P is that big of a threat for record companies, and I don't like the way the RIAA is messing up people's finances for sharing MP3's - but at the same time, the bottom line is that people are stealing the information that the RIAA people's paychecks are based off of. What else would you expect them to do?

It'd be nice if there was a website out there that was like the SourceForge of music. You could sign up and you would get your own webspace, so you could set up a website. The network would have stats that show what artists are most popular. It would rank website hits, and song downloads for each genre. I have ran across a couple website like this, but none of them are quite what I have in mind. There is Opsound that uses the Creative Commons licenses, but it doesn't let you host your songs there. There is also IUMA , but I'd like to see a site like this with more statistics, and that is more user friendly. Does anyone know of any websites out there like these that fit more with what I have in mind?

Who needs the RIAA music? Get your music here

You may suprise yourself and find a lot of music you like. Pay the actual artists for their music and not the music mafia (RIAA)

girl is naked, take a movie
girl is looking, picture cutie
you buy thing from pop up banner
you get wallet, purchase camera

we must destroy x10, we must destroy all internet ads
we must destroy x10, we must destroy all internet ads

window pop up on the screen
taking control of my machine
making all internet user insane
x10 profit goes down the drain

girl is naked, take a movie
girl is looking, picture cutie
you buy thing from pop up banner
you get wallet, purchase camera

we must destroy x10, we must destroy all internet ads
we must destroy x10, we must destroy all internet ads

the economy failing is x10 fault
popping up window is computer assault
window popup again and again
only solution is crush x10

we must destroy x10, we must destroy all internet ads
we must destroy x10, we must destroy all internet ads
we must destroy x10, we must destroy all internet ads
we must destroy x10, we must destroy all internet ads

- lyrics to "WE MUST DESTROY X10" by KOMPRESSOR

Even if you don't pay for they tracks you are supposed to be buying, the RIAA still has you because they tend to limit the exposure of the artists you have access to. They push one with so much hype to make quick sales and then go to the next artist.

If you really like to listen to music, then listen to the music, not the artist. There's plenty to choose from. Just pick your favorite genre and listen. You have permission to download these songs for personal enjoyment. However, if you really like the artist's music, give them something in return. They're happy, you're happy and the RIAA can kiss your E-Ass.

I used to care about DRM in CDs of the mainstream music industry, but then I realized I never did buy from mainstream bands or artists. Go listen to some indie music which is a hell of a lot better than Pink or Kenny G will ever aspire to be.
A good example is now, I'm listening to a lot of Red Martian on the punk side and John McCutcheon on the folk side. Both of which provide MP3s online of their stuff and actively support the promotion of online music. Not only that, but Red martian sells their albums anywhere from $2.50 to $6.00, you will never find that in any record company, with good music to boot. I've also listened to my local scene enough with Side Project for their funk sound or Lithium for their Punk and Ska offerings.
My point is, it shouldn't really matter if DRM goes mainstream, because chances are, your local scene or offerings that you must actively find produce a better sound than the publicity machine. Forget about buying from Arista and similar big names, then start listening to new music. It benefits your ears and hurts the large record companies who use the DRM at the same time.

Back in '93, I remember a link on Internet Underground Music Archive that said something like "Peer into the future of a crass and commercialized Web", and pointed to something called "The Internet Mall". Prescient.

I just hope that f(ree)s(oftware)s(ong) and s(teve)b(almer)s(ong) won't be included.

we may have no other choice to obtain music other than enlightened artists who want to reach a different auidence.


here you go

turn off your radio, and get away from your CD's and kazaa..

sit down for 1 week and listen only to IUMA music and you will find that with a little bit of effort you can get completely away from RIAA music and listen to some really cool and good music.

you can do the same with the MPAA... watch only indie films. there are some really good producers and film-makers out there that are not in it to make a bajillion dollars. and yes the special effects are cheezy, but it's entertainment, if you are entertained, then it was successful :-)

I find a lot of music on IUMA and the Synthesis. Neither have an abundance of adverts. As for a system of reccomendation or news/discussion I can't be of much help. Maybe you should start something like that!

My site has an artist of the month section but we just started it a few months ago so there isn't much there yet.

http://artists.iuma.com/ and for an example here is a page where you can download the songs, etc. here

http://artists.iuma.com/ and for an example here is a page where you can download the songs, etc. here

But maybe if I found out that Einstein's brain weighed as much as mine, I'd be able to do anything I wanted to, like write a new hit single and top the charts!

Bilbo lives!

Oh, and don't forget: The lord of the rhymes which samples it.

Go to IUMA.com. Their name officially is Internet Underground Music Archive, but in keeping in the Recording Industry Association and Motion Picture Association, I'd name them the Internet's Unsigned Musicians Association. They have:

• Over 40 genres of music
• Over 42,000 bands registered.
• Top 40 list in each genre
• Streamed MP3 or RealAudio, all the time.

Many of the bands are quite good. Click on their 'Radio IUMA' link (it's a popup window, but not very annoying), choose your genre (or all) and listen to streamed audio all the time.

[rant mode=on]

The (flawed) logic that so many people seem to use on music is:

1. RIAA puts out music.
2. I like some of their music but not all.
3. I am dislike some of their prices and policies ($15 / DRM)
4. I only listen to 2/10 of each of their CD's
5. THEREFORE, I can buy 2 RIAA CD's and steal 8 (10? 15? more?) RIAA CD's, since that's all I'll use.

The (correct) logic to use is this:

1. RIAA distributes about 95% of all music in the USA
2. RIAA represents about 0.0001% of all good musicians in the USA
3. I only like 2/10 of RIAA's music
4. RIAA has excessive prices and unreasonable policies ($15 / DRM)
5. I only listen to 2/10 of their CD's
6. THEREFORE, I should buy or obtain music from any of the 99.9999% of the musicians in the USA and around the world. Most will give me their music freely.

[rant mode = off]

Yes, there are a lot of not-so-good garage bands, but there are LOTS of good, independant bands on sites like IUMA. Many bands are professional groups with several CDs. Many groups will sell you their CD's (some post all their songs, some post only a few from each CD). All the groups would be happy if you sent them a check for $2 saying "I love your music on IUMA, send me more!"

With the number of articles being posted about the problems with RIAA, its sad that only a few of them reference free music sources like IUMA. The /. crowd who generally understands that "free software != bad software" should feel the same way about music, "free != bad". There may be lots of free stuff that isn't great, but much of it appeals to somone, or served some purpose for someone. Unlike sourceforge, most musicians don't put up songs of the form "I have a great idea for a song, its like J-Lo with an electronica beat. Pl34se help me write it."

frob.

Doesn't sound too bad, but I think I will stick with IUMA. I would rather support independents than coorporate whor....errr, I mean popular artists.

mp3.com (biggest >1.5 million tunes, now owned by Universal Vivendi who, so far, haven't messed it up too much)

IUMA (based in the USA, but international)

Besonic (based in Germany, but international)

mp3.de (based in Germany, but international)

Soundclick (based in the USA, but international)

(Garageband based in the USA, but international)

France mp3 (based in France)

Vitaminic (free + pay - based in the USA, but international)

Washington Post (yup, the newspaper)

Online Rock (based in the USA, but international)

Peoplesound based England

mp3.com Australia (not the same mp3.com - based in Australia, but international)

Emusic (pay and not really indie per se, but smaller label and re-release oriented, based in USA)

Artistlaunch (based in the USA, but international)

mp3 Poland - (Based in Poland - mostly domestic)

Good Google will searches turn up more small sites, thousands of independent artists' sites with free mp3's, some smaller labels that have free samples, many, many links pages. The biggest problem here is that it takes time to separate the wheat from the chaff. There is some incredibly good stuff out there and a lot of crap.

Use Google - many local newspaper sites have mp3 sections for local artists and there are many mp3 sites that are specifically for local talent.

If you're not familiar with mp3.com, it can be daunting in the sheer volume of material (no pun intended). And they accept material of all (musical) quality from absolute crap to incredibly good. They have many genre-based top-40 style charts and new-release charts. Walking through those is a natural first step. One concept they have that can be a big help is "stations" - really a euphemism for fan-generated lists of tunes by various artists. The tunes can be played separately or sequentially. So, when you find an artist that you like and get to their page, click on the "stations now playing" tab. On that page could be one to several "stations" where you might find additional good material that someone else has taken the time to comb out and list. I've seen lists from 2 to 200 tunes long - this can expand your options very quickly.

I have looked for ogg sources and found precious few. Unfortunately, Ogg is still a long way from critical mass.

I'd *LOVE* to be given some suggestions of good music that is legal to download and try out.

First off, check out CDBaby, an online record store that sells CDs by independent artists (which covers those burning CDRs in their bedroom, and those signed to tiny non-RIAA labels). You might want to check out their About Us page to read about their philosophy, and their artists terms page to see just how much of an improvement they are over mainstream distribution routes. In addition, the majority of artists on CDBaby have streaming RealAudio samples to listen to, plus a lot of them have free MP3s on their websites.

As for specific artists... well, I obviously don't know what sort of stuff you're into, but here's a selection of what I've been listening to recently:

• You're Pretty, MP3s at MP3s.com (play Something Real)
• Jennifer Terran (kookier than Tori Amos)
• Molly Zenobia (only a few MP3s on-site)
• Anger Of The Lamb, MP3s at IUMA.com (play Beautiful Disease)
• Violent Work Of Art (play The Worst Is Yet To Come)

If none of that tickles your fancy, CDBaby have a great search feature whereby you can enter the name of a well-known artist and get a list of recommendations, so whether you're a fan of Radiohead or (heaven forbid) Britney Spears, it shouldn't be too long until you've stumbled onto something you like.

mp3.com (biggest >1.5 million tunes, now owned by Universal Vivendi, but so far they haven't messed it up too much)

IUMA

Besonic

mp3.de

Soundclick

Garageband

France mp3

Vitaminic (free + pay)

Washington Post (yup)

Online Rock

Peoplesound

mp3.com Australia(not the same mp3.com)

Emusic (pay)

Artistlaunch

Good Google will searches turn up more small sites, thousands of independent artists' sites with free mp3's, smaller labels have free samples, many, many links pages. The biggest problem here is that it takes time to separate the wheat from the chaff. There is some incredibly good stuff out there and a lot of crap. I hope that you have a high bandwidth connection. Who needs the big labels? I don't.

Actually for a reallllly long time I stopped buying CD's because the content was utter crap. if you walk into any medi-play or other suposed "music superstore" the only thing that is carried there is the talent-less crap that is droned out day after day after day after day... hell even the radio stations agree with me as you still hear music from the early 90's played on the "alternative" stations.

so I stopped buying anything and started trolling and BLATENTLY STEALING MUSIC as they call it trying to sample something that would replace the crap the RIAA signed artists put out.

I found it...

IUMA yes there is 90 bajillion crap songs there.. but there is a large number of real talent trying to irk out a living out of their gift. I so far have bought 20 CD's this year from IUMA artists... and plan on buying more.

So, they could essentially put "You must name your first child after American Airlines".

Ooof! Don't I know it! Yeah I missed that part of the IUMA EULA once.

But now my son Iuma is 2 years old and doesn't seem to mind it so much.

It is time to start flooding the market with independent record labels and sites like IUMA. The people need to reclaim their music from the coorporations.

It disgusts me that people will badmouth the RIAA and then willingly support them through CD purchases or just plain steal from them.

Then you should appreciate my efforts. First, the obligatory:

RIAA Sucks!!!

Now that I have that out of the way, let me justify my rights to say that I couldn't care less about the 90% revenue stream generated from today's popular music. It's not a lot of my money going there. I mainly support unsigned artists. If a new 'popular' song tickles my fancy, then I rely on one of the local used tape & CD shops to have an original used copy of it. It usually doesn't take long to get them in. I feel by doing this, I put as little of my money into the RIAA mainstream revenues as possible.

This is similar to saying "when you drive a car at 60 miles per hour, you are speeding plain and simple."

The kind of blanket statement that you made is misleading and makes me furious. It is repeated day after day throughout the media and it is a misconception that the RIAA has tried to propagate for years now (and has to a large extent succeeded) in order to maintain its effective monopoly on the distribution of music. Joe Sixpack thinks that downloading music from the Internet is illegal. It is not. There are numerous legal ways to download a song from the Internet and I am not referring to the murky issue of fair use.

The correct statement would be along the lines of "When you download a song off of the Internet without having previously secured the copyright holder's permission to do so, you might be contravening copyright laws."

I have downloaded hundreds of songs from the Internet in a perfectly legal fashion from sites such as mp3.com , iuma.com , besonic.com , etc.

Please say it correctly or don't say it at all. Otherwise, you are simply aiding the RIAA's anti-competitive propoganda practices.

That's a route I think will have the best success. I don't go to Sam Goody, The Wall, etc. to look for music. I can't trust the content will be something I like. Instead, I go to mp3.com

I also go to the Internet Underground Music Archive. It's not an illegal music site. It's been around since before 1996 (when I first heard about it) and works like mp3.com (except that the sample mp3's don't get the last 15 seconds chopped off or something). It's a more grass roots music band 'incubator' where independent artists can demo/sell their music.

Another thing to try is contacting the owners of the top listened to internet stations on Shoutcast that match your genre. Maybe they would want new stuff to play.

go to Iuma.com and get your fill if indie artists of every type and style..

It's what mp3.com was supposed to be... a showcase of the free artists...

Having said that, I am very troubled by the following possible scenario:

What's to stop the RIAA Cartel, Clear-Channel and its ilk from sitting by quietly and letting others experiment, invent and grow a system and then, if it starts to take off, using their billions to buy/muscle their way in and take over? That is, use a very effective part of the Microsoft R&D model - let some one else spend the money to invent and innovate and then buy them/take them over or stomp them out of existence. Then we end up with the same mess or a worse mess than radio is in today on another medium. And, since (I believe that) Internet broadcasting is essentially an unregulated medium, it is probably ripe for widespread payola and other abuses.

1) Epitonic good selection of well known artists and lots of information about each artist so you can read up before you decide to download.

2) ArtistDirect a small selection of electronic artists

3) Amazon has a number of MP3s to download.

4) IUMA has many lesser known acts

5) MP3.COM for the really adventurous with lots of time and patience you might find some gems mixed among the numerous less-inspired artists...

The problem is that our current distribution model for intellectual property, especially music, does not work given the nominal distribution costs of internet-based music distribution. No digital form of distribution provides an equivalent level of moderation provided by the music industry, it is almost impossible to find the best quality content out of the giant databases like IUMA or MP3.com. We still need some way to sort the good stuff from the banal. It probably makes sense to use Gnutella to download pop music today, but from a long term perspective, we need to create an entirely new paradigm for music proliferation.

It's that idiot who set all the mail box bombs...

As a producer, composer, and general content creator, I think that looking for quality entertainment is the critical concern. There's plenty of stuff out there, the trick is finding the good stuff. And with a few notable exceptions (Ani DiFranco, etc.) you aren't going to find it at your local Best Buy, and maybe not even at your local record store (if any of those still exist). For now, the web is where it's at.

While certainly not a litmus test for quality, you can at least trust that artists that use alternate distribution like CDBaby to provide distribution for self-produced/funded titles at least cared enough about their music to scrounge up the money to press a CD and arrange for distribution.

If you're willing to trudge through some crap (albeit interesting crap in many cases), the big music sites like IUMA, MP3.com, and Garageband provide more tracks than you'll be able to listen to.

One hint for the more commercial sites like MP3.com - skip the charts occasionally. The way the MP3.com charts work, you'll typically get a song at number 1 that stays at number 1 for a long time because everyone's listening to it because it's number 1. A self-perpetuating hit, if you will. Also, ever since Vivendi bought MP3.com out, there have been an awful lot of mainstream artists in the top charts. Still, if you're looking for mainstream, you can at least get a "legal" mp3 of a bunch of stuff there.

An additional hint, you'll find some real gems in the less-traveled genres like film music, darkwave, folk, comedy, etc.

Finally, there are lots of small independent labels/artist collectives like RTFM Records that have quality artists that either got tired of working in the mainstream entertainment business, or were smart enough to try and slog it out themselves. Supporting labels like these is a good way to encourage more of the same.

I don't have much advice for you on the movie side of things - I think with the advent of cheap digital camcorders and products like iMovie and Final Cut Pro, you'll see more of this kind of content hitting the web in the next year or two, though. Especially as more people get broadband, which is more or less required for visual stuff.

One site I can recommend if you're into fan-produced Star Wars stuff is theforce.net which has quite a few short films and trailers of varying quality. There's also an absolutely stunning short film set in the Star Wars universe called Duality that you just have to see to believe.

Finally, I'd like to put a plug in for a new benefit album created by a bunch of musicians from around the world in response to the WTC/Pentagon attacks. The album, September Rising, is now available. It was put together by a bunch of pros, most of whom have never met each other face to face. Complete information is available at septemberrising.org. It's some really great stuff, and unlike most of the benefit albums coming from the major entertainment conglomerates who only donated a percentage of sales, I believe that all proceeds from sales of this album go to the New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund.

Are there any sites that make a good starting point?
www.iuma.com for starters.

Then again, some of the stuff I listen to on a regular basis either a) was recoded on a shoestring like this, or b) was recorded a while ago and the recording quality is probably the same as what can be done at home now.

Unfortunately, he's a horrible businessman and has a credit file published in multiple volumes, so he won't be starting his own label anytime soon. (And nothing I've said or done has convinced him to even consider an indie label,)

The key is having solid production values and knowing how music is built. Regarding production values, 16 bits just isn't enough for source material, and 44.1kHz is cutting it rather close. Don't try to use the default sound fonts on something you want to show to anyone. Have a fast CPU. Knowing how music is built just comes with practice. It also helps to have the patience and inspiration (or dumb luck) to tweak velocities and CC's on MIDI tracks until your brain falls out your fingertips -- or an engineer willing to do the same for you.

(Both of the artists at Rainbow Sally use Windows, and have system instability issues day in and day out. Where the hell are the Linux audio applications people? Sigh...)

-jhp

As for why I released them under that license, I respond: why not? Those recordings were done many years ago. I will never make any money off of them, nor do I really need or want to. I didn't make the music with the intent of making money... I made it because I wanted to. I learned long ago that the kind of music that I wanted to create wouldn't be the kind of music that would make me rich... or even make me enough money to live off of.

If someone else can get some enjoyment out of them, then that's great... if not, then oh well... But they're definitely not going to do any anyone any good just sitting on cassette tapes in my closet.

There's nothing wrong with the artist making money off the deal. But, what you are proposing is that instead of the RIAA being the middleman, eMusic should become the middleman.

What we are suggesting is that there be NO middleman! The artist writes music and releases it in MP3 format for free. Then, the artist makes money by selling CDs, merchandise and touring.

Sure eMusic is offering a good deal now. But, there is plenty of competition. What would happen if eMusic got to be in the position of the RIAA? What if the sole distribution channel between the artist and fan was eMusic. Do you think that the price would still be $15 per month?

I doubt it. eMusic does have a couple decent artists that I like. But, to be honest - I'm not impressed with the overall selection.

I want any artist, any song, any album, any genre -- anytime! Basically we all want the "big jukebox in the sky" that has every song ever recorded.

I have never used eMusic and I never intend to. I am opposed to you "acoustic fingerprinting" technique. Same goes for Windows Media and Liquid Audio. Once you try to watermark my music - I'm not interested. I like being in control.

Just wanted to point out that legal downloads from musicians who WANT you to download can be found at:

IUMA
UBL (Artist Direct)
mp3.com
vitaminic
mp3.fr
rollingstone.com
Amazon.com has a free downloads section in the music department

And for money:

emusic.com

Just wanted to point out that legal downloads from musicians who WANT you to download can be found at:

IUMA
UBL (Artist Direct)
mp3.com
vitaminic
mp3.fr
rollingstone.com
Amazon.com has a free downloads section in the music department

And for money:

emusic.com

You know, Napster's real problem is that there is no way they can claim that they didn't know what was going on. In order to maintain the catalogue their servers had to know what songs were available. Even if you don't log what's going on, that means that you can easily be held accountable.

Now, I haven't been following the details of what's been going on on mp3.com, but I hear that they were actually hosting pirated music. Even if all they did was link to it, they have (from one point of view) even less excuse for not knowing what's going on. Then again, since napster developed napster (what a fun sentence) they should have had/did have some really slick reporting tools for finding out what was going on.

There are other sites which do what mp3.com was supposed to do, like IUMA which have been around, well, basically forever. Hell, when IUMA started it was all MPEG 1 Layer 2 files on their site. The only thing IUMA carries is unsigned or indie bands which need more publicity. It would be hard to bring any kind of lawsuit against them because they aren't actually doing anything wrong.

Mind you, I'll miss Napster. I got a lot of good mp3s from there. I even got some mp3s and then went out and bought albums. Whether I'm in the minority or not is another argument. I definitely didn't buy albums containing all the songs I want (Some of them I just can't locate, some I don't feel like buying an album for a song or two. I also wouldn't pay more than a buck for an individual song in online digital format under any circumstances.) But Napster pretty much got what it deserved, even if it only deserved it due to a lack of forethought. Can mp3.com be far behind?

and if you take the amount of money Napster has made, muliply that by the amount of money that everyone using it has paid, take that to the power of the amount of money that everyone using it has made, and throw in $20.

You get $20.

It's not about money. Piracy is about money. It's not about piracy.

It's about control of information. Information is power. It's about power. It's about power.

Who's got the power?
--

I tried viewing the videos at lhpo.artcom.org with no luck... there seems to be an HTML error in their videos page. (missing ;" after the text movieframe(8)).
Also, their mail page is broken - the cgi script it references does not exist.

I tried contatcting them through their iuma page, hope that works.

--

Of course, people actually downloading the whole human genome probable wouldn't worry about this, but couldn't they use a better compression format than .zip? I bet using bzip2 or rar would shave a couple of hundred MBs off of that 753MB file. Also, the differences in compression techniques would be interesting to see on a large group of files mainly consisting of G, A, C, and T. -- demiurge You find a file that appears important and obliterate it from memory!!! Score one for the downtrodden hacker!

• G -- 00
• A -- 01
• T -- 10
• C -- 11

This would only work for the .fa files, but .fa files can contain "N"s also. If you just want to browse the Genome, look through the pieces directory. .

Hey, I too am a musician, and I post MP3s regularly on Iuma.com. My issue is that I make my music with what I am sitting in front of right now- the computer. What good is it going to do me if everyone is listening to me, and is dying to see me in concert, if I can't ever play a concert? I've made a coupel bucks off of this, but it's a far cry from the capital I will need to invest before I can play in real time what I do with a mouse. That's fine and good for you to look at your recordings as you do, but my recordings are my music. No chance to make $$ any other way.
And other artists playing my songs? Pshaw! It's 1/2 bleeps, and 1/2 bloops! They can play it.
I'm done, thanks for reading.