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Oh yeah...here's my resume:

http://www.phynd.net/~david/resume.pdf

Would you hire me?

First of all, I'm glad to see that the replies to these posts are finally starting to make sense. The last article about Jesse was filled with misinformed morons waxing about how criminals were being put to justice.
Secondly, nice sig.
Thirdly, my point. The Phynd server never trafficked in, traded, or transmitted copyrighted works. It woked as a "phone book" of sorts. It was almost identical in operation to Google, except Google caches the files it finds, and Phynd does not. You search for a file on Phynd, and it gives you a link that will let your operating system (which has this network searcher built-in, by the way) connect directly to whoever it sharing the file. There is no way for Jesse to even track who downloaded what, because downloads do not go through his computer. If you search for something, all the site records is the text of your search. It isn't even used for anything aside from making fun of people who search for weird porn or playing practical jokes(I know, I'm friends with jesse). Now for the "engage in or sell" portion...Phynd is not for sale from Jesse, the core code is actually owned by the operator of www.phynd.net. There is also a clause that says something to the effect of "there must be reasonable effort made to lower the counts of copyright violation over the Phynd service." If you'll notice, Phynd no longer has "Music" in the "search for files of type:" box. That's a reasonable cut down on piracy, it doesn't filter results based on music filetypes anymore. However, if you type "metallica" into the search box, you will always get metallica mp3s, not that their new ones are worth listening to, but that's for a whole other post.

since he was just using a software package that he downloaded at Phynd.net, I'm not sure that "selling" the software would be much of an incentive to donate. A better idea would be for more people to run a phynd like service on their networks, to give the RIAA too many targets to sue.

The student interviewed in CNN (linked in the article) was punished for creating a search tool that was used by other students to search for data, including ... MP3s ...

except he didn't create it either. he was simply running software that was created by another RPI student (Sam Hopewell) nearly 5 years before this kid came to the school. the software is currently maintained by another RPI alumni (see phynd.net). the person interviewed on CNN was being sued for running the engine, not creating it. of course, he still doesn't control what people use the engine for. much of it's use is for legitimate, non-infringing activities.

Now that they've sued one search engine at RPI, another one, funded by the student union, has been taken down at RPI's request.

http://www.phynd.net/files/phynd4.tar.gz

A bunch of C and Perl. To lessen the Slashdot effect please share on Kazaa or your P2P network of choice.

Read the Friggin Articles!!!!!!! The RIAA press release is telling. They are really smoking some hardcore crack! They want to make LANs illegal!?!

These guys made programs which allow you to search a network. The flatlan site seems to be down, but read this FAQ about Phynd. It is a program which indexes the files available on various protocols (like FTP and Windows Shares). The RIAA could even use it to help find copyright violations. Instead they want to punish anyone who makes networking software. If they knew about the internet 20 years ago, it wouldn't exist--except in their offices.

Repeat after me. "The RIAA is doing this for anticompetitive reasons. The RIAA are a bunch of facist pigs. The RIAA are the real thieves. They want to steal the internet and computers away from the public. They want to establish a DRM censorship system where they can block anything they want--especially independent competitors."

However, one network searching site run by an RPI club is still alive and well.

Interestingly enough, network sharing has been way down this year. During my freshman year I could 'phynd' anything I wanted, but now in my junior year there only seems to be a handleful of popular divx movies and most mainstream mp3 albums. Certainly not the selection that Kazaa offers.

I wanted to try karma whoring... here ya go:

DirectConnect
Phynd
FlatLAN

We at UConn run a DC hub. Out of thousands of people on campus, we only have about fifty folks on it, but we share about 2TB on a good day, at 10MBit speeds. We pool resources to get newer releases (mostly TV eps) and it all works out pretty well.

UConn people! The hub awaits!

--grendel drago

Here at my school we are capped to 5GB a week, with rollover. Its not a bad policy, since only about 2% of the students complain (the ones using 70% of the bandwidth).

We run Phynd to try and lessen dependence on our external connection. There is also a Direct Connect server available, again keeping all sorts of bandwidth on campus.

The main problem with bandwidth is that applications keep increasing in complexity and resources, but most schools won't allow the extra traffic. When our freshmen class came in, bandwidth usage went up 40%, as opposed to the 20% it should have increased.

Why?

Faster computers. Easier data manipulation. People expect a fat pipe like the one (sorta) they have at home.

And the new Redhat is like 5 CDs.

Back in the day, a P2 MMX 233MHz couldn't run the high-bandwidth apps that most websites server. Now, the standard is 1GHz+.

Times have changed.

There is, for the server at my school at least. I tried it from home the other day and it wouldn't let me access it.

" 1. All network traffic to/from any UCI computer, web site or server is untouched. There are no controls and no need to shape this, as it is "educational" traffic. Further, as it does not go to or from the Internet, we don't have to pay for it. As long as it stays within the UCI network, we can take advantage of the high-speed connections and equipment we have on campus."