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ooops heres the URL http://www.musiccity.com/

I didn't complain with somebody stole my name. We both make software products, I happened to be around first, and they also happen to be a larger company with many more users, but we both have the name trademarked. The key is that the trademarks only apply to the usage of the name, and even as both being software, the usage is definately different enough that they can keep using it and there is nothing I can do about it.

There really are some gems on the download.com pagethat guy points to for neonapsters ripping player, these are from the "only positive" remarks option for their CD ripper (old?), i didnt dare read the "only negative"

"Superb! Just like CDex, but with spyware"
I love this program. I used to use CDex, but I was annoyed at the lack of useless spyware included in the download. Since I switched to NeoAudio, all those troubles have gone away. I now have way more spyware and adware than I know what to do with. Thanks, NeoNapster! "

and

"Best spyware I've seen in years!!!"
I've been using NeoAudio anally since it was first released. Forget CDex!!! CDex doesn't invade your privacy and solicit like NeoAudio does... NeoAudio is the BEST spyware out there, BAR NONE!!!

even cmdrTaco gets in on the action with...

"Wow! The best of its kind I have seen!"
This is an incredibly well made piece of software. It completely outperforms CDEX and the SpyWare is only enabled if you request it, and in return, you get 100+ free songs. This completely rocks. Don't use anything but this!

Thing is props for giving out the source code as GPL but is this just another morpheus type company who get GPL code change a few words and brand it their own, and give it away with spyware contributing nothing to open source ,

or

are they a honest company only wanting to advance the concept of filesharing further by contributing something worthy to P2P other than "free spyware" and a fancy GUI ?

__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ __ _

Here's a mirror of the article in question.

I wish I could buy http://chat.musiccity.com/dl/GirlsGoneWild.mpeg for $1 a day.

In a similar (although completely different) vein, might I recommend Gnucleus, which is an open source fileshare program (whose code was recently appropriated by the well-known Morpheus).

Oh really?

Other than not contacting John Marshall (or Swabby, main Gnucleus developer), what evil have they done? They do provide the source code, and when installing the new Preview Edition, even the GPL itself is presented.

I think they were suddenly disconnected from Fastrack and had to move so fast to not lose their userbase base of millions, that quick, but sadly, badly done, actions had to be taken.

Give them another week to clarify things, first for them, later for the community. I can only imagine the big mess that's currently happening on Morpheus offices... I don't think that bashing will help now.

Steve Griffin StreamCast/Morpheus CEO
"This unprovoked attack is being carefully investigated, as it appears that federal laws may have been violated. We are still attempting to discover who would want to eliminate the community of millions of consumers who are using the Morpheus software product to connect with other users around the world."

Because of these attacks there is a new version of Morpheus that you must download in order to use the P2P system. They state in the message that this software was forced to be released early and I can say that the new software isn't what I was expecting. At this point in the P2P lifecycle I don't believe that this is doing any good.

Wheather or not MusicCity is going to press charges against the attacks that rendered software useless this comes at a bad time. Any company that forces another companys software to go belly must be looked at closely.

Link

Read MusicCity bash Gnutella:

http://www.musiccity.com/helpfaq.htm

With Morpheus dumping the fastrak network completely for gnutella it looks like the fast track network might be going down for good. And also on the Front page of Musiccity they talk about the attacks on Morphues and the Network "Who would do that" I dont know maybe RIAA^H^H^H^H Hackers. Cyber terrorism to protect big buisness... Doubt it but interesting.

It's at the bottom of the blue sidebar/frame on the left, just above the green "Return to Home." As of now, it appears -- if it's not working for you check that you're not using a cached version of the page, and that your browser likes frames (probably a given).

If you're still not getting it, here's a link straight to the source.

Also, for those who have downloaded the zip file linked above, it contains a "gnucleus1" folder. Does the GPL allow GPL'd software to be used in "closed-source" software ?? Doesn't doing this "taint" the closed-source program and therefore make it GPL also ?? Or, is this simply ESR's dream/wish ?? Fact is, the GPL has never been tried in court. Until then, all you get is a bunch of non-lawyers spouting their opinion or interpretation.

Here is the fixed link.

So fix the blurb before we get 4 billion posts talking about GPL violations.. oops. too late.

That being said, read the reviews on download.com, people are not happy at all with the new version. Although that doesn't say much since most of them are obviously clueless.. (half of them said "why fix it if it wasn't broken?" aparently missing the fact that it WAS broken.)

Source is available directly off the musiccity homepage..

MusicCity

Yeah, yeah, I didn't post a directly link. Didn't seem like the right thing to do ;o)

I'm looking at the source now

The source code is avalible here If you can't follow the link, go to musiccity.com and click on 'source code' in the bottom left frame.

The source code is avalible here If you can't follow the link, go to musiccity.com and click on 'source code' in the bottom left frame.

The released it, here it is:
http://start.musiccity.com/source/mpesrc1.zip

From the technology section of the FAQ:

Q: Why is it better than other distributed networks such as Gnutella?
A: With Gnutella and similar networks, all connected computers acts as search servers on the networks. When a search query is initiated, it is sent to 2 to 4 other computers, which in turn passes the query to more computers, and so on. Effectively, each search query traverses the entire network. This creates a huge amount of traffic. Clients on slower connections (such as modem dial-ups) cannot keep up with this amount of traffic, which slows down the entire search process.

Seriously, I'm a fan of Morpheus, I just thought this was kinda finny...

So, whatever protocol Morpheus decides to use will suddenly have millions of people on it.

I like the gnutella network, and in fact I really like how in accessing it, Morpheus is using its 'supernode' technology (only computers that meet certain speed/connection requirements become nodes). Searches are faster, because you're not waiting on someone with a 56k dialup to process your search request before he passes it on. (by the way, I hear that BearShare is going to, or has already started, implementing this same idea to help stabalize the gnutella network)

But my main point is this: whatever network Morpheus decides to use, be it fast track, gnutella, something else, or a combination, there will instantly be a large amount of shared files on said network.

So, in my interest of finding the maximum number of DivX movies possible, I think I'll probably stick with Morpheus for the time being.

I do hate the damn popus, though.

Click here for the unframed version. After a very brief introduction, the main story is here.

Click here for the unframed version. After a very brief introduction, the main story is here.

Taken from the Morpheus FAQ at www.musiccity.com/helpfaq.htm

Q: Can I get viruses using Morpheus?

A: As always when you are downloading or receiving files from the Internet, you must exercise caution. Certain file types may contain viruses or so-called Trojan horses. You should protect yourself by using regularly updated anti-virus software, for example Norton Antivirus (www.norton.com) or McAfee (www.mcafee.com ). Both Norton and McAfee offer free 30-day trial versions that you can download directly from their web sites. Not all file types can contain viruses or Trojans. Music, video, and picture files are generally safe - that includes files with the extensions .mp3, .vaw, .mpg, .avi, .mov, .bmp and .jpg. PDF documents (.pdf) and text files (.txt) are also in general safe. You should be cautious of executable files (.exe) and Microsoft Word and Excel documents (.doc and .xls). These files are specified with a icon in the search results on Morpheus.com. back to the top

Update Feb. 2 2002: The above warning is the least of your worries.

It isn't really a surprise to me about the spyware in Audio Galaxy, I've heard people talk about how it should be classified as a trojan rather than a piece of software. MusicCity's Morpheus is by far the best spyware free program, but unfortunately there is no linux version. The best part is that it runs on the same network as Kazaa, without the spyware (which doesn't matter since Kazaa has halted downloads of their software anyway). You can find any file you want on it, and I think it is even better than Audio Galaxy.

Does morpheus use KaZaA as it's engine? I know it names all the files kazaa29387409871234.dat If this is the case, what other software out there uses KaZaA as it's engine and what is going to happen to all of those?

Somalia was a nasty place (it is a little better now). There were a series of special interests (the warlords) that the US totally underestimated. The film apparently does not do the situation justice.

Although the film is apparently up on Morpheus other reviews suggest that it isn't worth the download.

I find it odd that, even though KaZaA has suspended downloads, their download counter (at the top of the page at http://www.kazaa.com/en/defend.htm, for example) is still going up. This might be automatic (it's going up very smoothly and uniformly), but even so it's amusing. In addition to Morpheus, there's also Grokster, which likewise licenses the FastTrack technology. Is file sharing really dead? I don't think so. I mean, the way courts generally work, organizations like the RIAA and MPAA would have to sue every file sharing program making company separately. In addition to the legal fees, the industries are lagging behind by a year or at least several months... Programs are around for a while before any suit gets filed, and then the suits take time. True, it's hardly optimal that file sharing programs rise and fall every so often, but a bit of a shakeup is good now and then. Besides, they're growing faster than people can try to get them shut down. Direct Connect is quite good for some things. Gnutella, although it sucks, cannot be eradicated. And if something like Freenet ever gets somewhat usable and efficient, they won't really have anyone left to sue. Maybe then they'll concentrate on making movies and music and software good enough that we want to buy it, instead of producing crap on a stick, trying to limit what we can do with it, and suing everyone in sight. Marketing can only do so much to sell a bad product (although M$ has done an entirely too good job of it...).

When will everyone realize that you can't put the cat back into the bag. Once the technology is out, telling someone, "Don't use it, or you'll be sorry" becomes an invitation to flaut its use.

It's really too bad that a Judge doesn't order Windows banned--because most people who pirate MP3's, etc. use Windows to do it. Hey, there's a good idea in there somewhere..

For windows users, you can still use Morpheus for all your mp3 and pr0n downloads. I wouldn't be suprised if Morpheus is next considering Kazaa and Morpheus are based on the same technology from fastrack. Both morpheus and kazaa are similar to napster in the sense that they have centralized authentication, but they differ in the fact that there is not a centralized index. There is a good writeup on morpheus and kazaa available here.

AudioGalaxy IMHO is the best free client out there . The others such as MusicCity's Morpheus, Bearshare, Limewire, and KaZaA all have been held accountable for copyright violations. You might remember the slashdot article entitled P2P vs. RIAA: RIAA Wins. Now aren't we glad that our government passed that wonderful law called The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)[pdf]?

Thinking of downloading a free share program, ever wonder how RIAA can attack you? The following was taken from their website outlining how the DMCA can be used against you and I.

"The DMCA law also delineates the responsibilities of Internet service providers (ISPs) in cases of infringement online. For example, the law formalizes a notice and takedown procedure between ISPs and copyright owners. It is now clear that when an ISP is aware it is posting or transmitting infringing content, the ISP must act to remove the infringing works or it may be liable for any resulting damages." snip

So what has RIAA been up to? The following is proof that they have been busy using their precious DMCA.

The RIAA Anti-Piracy Unit seized 1,257,796 illegal CD-Rs by midyear 2001, this is up 133% compared to midyear of 2000. Here is a link to a pdf with their mid year statistics for 2001; and then I will end my rant on RIAA because I don't want to get too offtopic :)

On Cnet they keep track of the most popular mp3 search utilities. Morpheus comes in first this week with slightly less than a million and a half downloads; it has an impressive 42 million total downloads. Remember back to the height of Napster's popularity, they had a supposed 200 million users. This number shouldn't be compared to the number of total downloads due to the possibility of users creating multiple accounts.

Also on Cnet, Napster 2.0 beta 10.4 the one that was reviewed in the article has a ghastly approval rating of 0.099. That means that less than one hundredth of the people that downloaded the new pay-for-play Napster actually liked it. Going through the user reviews of the products it appears that they find that Napster falls short of the free clients, it certainly is apparent that it does not yet have the user base that Free Nappyster enjoyed.

For the electronic junkies out there I would recommend a less well known file sharing client known as SoulSeek. You can download it not from Cnet, but from their own website. The latest version is 104 and it includes dedicated techno/electronica service with a great user base; "Private messaging capabilities with both online and off-line users; Folder based file-sharing, which allows for more convenient browsing and downloading; Fine-grained control over file-sharing, with the ability to restrict access to a select list of users, as well as the ability to disallow access to specific users; Fine-grained transfer queue management, with the ability to restrict the number of uploads and downloads per-user and in total; File searching with users in room or in user list; Wishlist that takes search patterns for easy automatic notification when certain files become shared; A generic personalized recommendation system." snip

Now that these Pier to Pier file sharing networks have taken over, they are looking for ways to make money. Maybe to pay their programmers and lawyers. Beware of the adervistements that come bundled along with the install for the more popular sharing clients, such as Audiogalaxy. These bundled programs are known as SpyWare.

-If I metamoderated myself I would care more about karma

Great!

This means I'll be able to download the shows real soon now on Morpheus, Gnutella or EDonky2000!

Can I still get my WaReZ over Morpheus?

Of course, I don't know whether kazaa actually has one of these later versions.

In any case, I don't think it tracks what you download, browse, etc.

And if you're still paranoid, get Morpheus instead. It installs a little thing called BDE Projector, but that's easily uninstalled doesn't cause any problems.

Oh, and I use Ad-Aware. It's awesome, and hasn't picked up anything related to Morpheus. Updated weekly, at the very least.

Morpheus is a windows app that works on the FastTrak network(same as Kazaa), claims not to install spyware and still works after I did the ad-aware thing. It pops up ads in IE every once in a while if you leave it running but other than that it gives you access to all the ill-gotten gain out there.

If you don't like spyware, try out MusicCity Morpheus. Almost the same thing as Kazaa, but on the front page, they guarantee "no spyware". I'd say to vote with your $$, but since both services are free, you'll have to vote with banner-clicking.

Note: the payments aren't per taxpayer, of course, they're per piece of recording medium, which is much less obnoxious, since it's not taxing people who aren't recording anything. So if it bothers you that the tax covers media that you record non-audio material on, go get yourself a copy of Morpheus and download some Metallica tunes.

Goddess bless Morpheus.

Morpheus. What else could you mean?

Of course, they could just be lying. Who knows?

Kazaa's file sharing client, also used by MusicCity, combines multiple data sources to maximize the requesting client's use of bandwidth.

Morpheus

I'm not sure where it is on IRC. Anyone?

viking099 writes "File swapping programs such as Morpheus, Grokster, and Kazaa (all based on the same software from FastTrak) have grown over 480% in the past 4 months, and are set to break the 1.57 million concurrent connection record that Napster set." So who exactly is surprised by this?

The RIAA is going after the FastTrack network (KaZaA, Morpheus, and Grokster) next. This is going to be the next big battle, as this network isn't centralized (at least, not as centralized as Napster was), so the RIAA will have a harder time proving that FT is responsible. Another intesting thing about the FT network is that the latest version locks out the open source client that the giFT project is developing (it worked again briefly over the weekend, but now it's broken again). While they try to get it up and running with the new FT network, they say that they're also developing and their own open source network (OpenFT).

In parallel with the FT assault, the RIAA, as of Monday, decided to go after AudioGalaxy (read about it in the NY Post over here). AudioGalaxy has filters in place, but the RIAA says they aren't good enough.

also, visit #gift on irc.openprojects.net for even more info

also, visit #gift on irc.openprojects.net for even more info

also, visit #gift on irc.openprojects.net for even more info

• age verification isn't designed to be foolproof, only provide an easy way to stop most people who might be interested

All that I can see it doing is punishing the law abiding soft core porn sites, and driving kids to P2P services like Morpheus where it's trivial to find hard core porn, without even a record of your access on a server.

This legislation is window dressing. Kids are going to find porn if they go looking for it, or even if they don't. Better to allocate money to educate parents about what their kiddies are looking at, and how to deal with it.

• Everyone else in the real world has to use real age verification systems (be is visual "hmm, he looks like a 11 year old" or "ID please") when it comes to things that can be deemed "harmful" to minors, so why shouldn't online systems?

Because it doesn't work. Your own point is that real people can form an opinion of your age, ask to see identification, and then make a further decision based on that.

That doesn't apply online. There's no face to check, only a string of numbers. All it proves is that you have access to a valid credit card number. It doesn't have to be yours, it doesn't even have to be from a real credit card, it just has to conform to the numbering system. It's popularist window dressing that doesn't address the real problem, and every piece of pointless unenforcable legislation weakens the whole legal system.

Note that I'm not proposing an alternative solution, because I don't think that there is one. When I was a kid, I was lucky to find a discarded soft core porn magazine in the woods. Oh, innocent days. Grab a copy of Morpheus, select "videos" and search for (e.g.) "dog" (an innocent topic for an innocent doggie loving kiddie). Prepare to be pretty fucking horrified by what your tender young sprouts will find, even with the default filtering turned on.

Here's the thing. Your kids will find porn online. You can legislate until you're blue in the face, but all you'll do is make is slightly harder to get soft core porn from law abiding servers. Net effect? You'll probably just encourage curious kids to go looking for the hard core fuckfests on P2P systems.

• No minors are being harmed or exploited in [virtual kiddie porn]

I have to reluctantly agree with you, but on the other hand, we're not good at keeping our noses out of victimless crimes. Remind me, in how many States is fellatio between consenting adults still illegal? And who am I hurting by growing pot for my own use? Tricky call.

also, visit #gift on irc.openprojects.net for even more info