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While we're pulling numbers out of the air, don't forget to factor in the people who listen to the samples. I fairly often hear about an artist, listen to a few samples on iTMS and then decide I don't want to buy anything. Apple still pays for this bandwidth, but they get no return. According to Apple's press release, they sold 50m songs in the first year, an average of around . If they are shifting large numbers of static files, they should be using someone like these people, who (assuming an average file size of 4MB) quote $400 for bandwidth. Now, it's probably fair to say that a lot of people download samples, and then don't buy songs, so it could well be a couple of orders of magnitude bigger. Either way, the credit card processing overhead is almost certainly higher than the cost of serving the static files.

Here's who created the scanner, and what they have to say about it...

Thank you for choosing to Download DtecNet Parent File Scan. Parent File Scan is brought to you by DtecNet Software ApS. This free program allows you to search your computer for installed P2P applications as well as movie and music files. You will then be given the option to remove the identified applications and delete infringing movie and music files in a few easy steps. The program does not distinguish between legal and illegal copies, as it is up to the user to determine, whether the files found by the program have been acquired legally, or whether the material should be deleted. Information generated by the program will be made available only to the program's user and will not be shared with or reported to DtecNet Software or any other body.

The FAQ is even more insightful, here's a few choice items:
Q: Does the program distinguish between legal and illegal copies of multimedia files?
A: No. The program does not distinguish between legal and illegal copies. It is up to the user to determine whether the files found by the program have been acquired legally, or if the material should be deleted.

Q: How do I recover deleted files?
A: You can't. Once files are deleted, they cannot be recreated.

Oh, and it removes some "P2P software" if you want as well (Because obviously BitTorrent is for thieves)

From ZDNet:
Parent File Scan also uses a very liberal definition of file-swapping software. In a test on a CNET News.com computer, the software identified Mirc--a client for the Internet Relay Chat network, where files can be swapped, but where tens of thousands of wholly legal conversations happen every day--and Mercora, a streaming Web radio service that uses peer-to-peer technology but does not allow file swapping.

Argh...

Here's who created the scanner, and what they have to say about it...

Thank you for choosing to Download DtecNet Parent File Scan. Parent File Scan is brought to you by DtecNet Software ApS. This free program allows you to search your computer for installed P2P applications as well as movie and music files. You will then be given the option to remove the identified applications and delete infringing movie and music files in a few easy steps. The program does not distinguish between legal and illegal copies, as it is up to the user to determine, whether the files found by the program have been acquired legally, or whether the material should be deleted. Information generated by the program will be made available only to the program's user and will not be shared with or reported to DtecNet Software or any other body.

The FAQ is even more insightful, here's a few choice items:
Q: Does the program distinguish between legal and illegal copies of multimedia files?
A: No. The program does not distinguish between legal and illegal copies. It is up to the user to determine whether the files found by the program have been acquired legally, or if the material should be deleted.

Q: How do I recover deleted files?
A: You can't. Once files are deleted, they cannot be recreated.

Oh, and it removes some "P2P software" if you want as well (Because obviously BitTorrent is for thieves)

From ZDNet:
Parent File Scan also uses a very liberal definition of file-swapping software. In a test on a CNET News.com computer, the software identified Mirc--a client for the Internet Relay Chat network, where files can be swapped, but where tens of thousands of wholly legal conversations happen every day--and Mercora, a streaming Web radio service that uses peer-to-peer technology but does not allow file swapping.

Argh...

Excuse me for not downloading the program, but their website makes it sound like the application offers the chance to delete files.

Could we all get together and flood the MPAA and the developer (assuming they're evil by association) and call them about all of our deleted home movies and recording and Windows missing its sounds?

No contact phone on dtecnet's support page.

--D

p.s. Did anyone else notice in the scrolling background of the MPAA page that their users names like gay1e@fileshare, wildchick29076, anonymous, and more!

Download it from here if you want to avoid their EULAs

The FAQ sheds some light on the software functionality.

Parent File Scan communicates with the developer, DtecNet, only to tell it what version of the program you're using. I'm sure the devs will keep your IP address in a locked vault away from the MPAA. They'd tell you in plain English, in this FAQ or on their cutesy flash homepage, if they intended to connect to your IP with BT or Emule, right? Right!

They also state that the program cannot differentiate between "legal and illegal copies", whatever that means.

Q: Is it possible to hide files from the program, by changing their name or extension?
A: No. The program uses advanced binary recognition, locating all known multimedia file types and P2P applications, regardless of their name and extension.

Q: Does the program distinguish between legal and illegal copies of multimedia files?
A: No. The program does not distinguish between legal and illegal copies. It is up to the user to determine whether the files found by the program have been acquired legally, or if the material should be deleted.

So they claim they look for something like magic numbers/headers to detect "multimedia" files...but beyond that, it seems incredibly stupid.

Looks like a Windows port of 'file' to me.

Thank you for choosing to Download DtecNet Parent File Scan.

Parent File Scan is brought to you by DtecNet Software ApS. This free program allows you to search your computer for installed P2P applications as well as movie and music files. You will then be given the option to remove the identified applications and delete infringing movie and music files in a few easy steps. The program does not distinguish between legal and illegal copies, as it is up to the user to determine, whether the files found by the program have been acquired legally, or whether the material should be deleted. Information generated by the program will be made available only to the program's user and will not be shared with or reported to DtecNet Software or any other body.

I was looking at this site the other day. My first impression was that it was a pretty good idea -- you have this cheap little computer that would be more than adequate for running a website &/or mail server, and it's small enough that you could get dozens of them of a single rack.

Then it dawned on me that the Mac Mini doesn't have a fan, and depends entirely on being able to vent heat around the bottom edges and back panel. Apple's site has a document warning users:

Always place your Mac mini on a hard, flat surface to provide maximum airflow to the computer's vents around the rubber base. Don't put anything on top of your Mac mini or stack Mac minis on top of each other either.

Sounds like a dense rack full of the things would be liable to overheat & burn out.

Are these people thinking about cooling issues? Their FAQ page made no mention of it last week, and it looks like it still doesn't now. Would anyone trust a rack full of these things not to cook the circuitry?

...who has the following in their welcome Flash movie?

The site is overloaded.
you loose paying customers.

Emphasis is mine. Lack of capitalization and bad spelling is theirs.