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Napster Alternatives Coming Strong
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?
Until the suits arrive and crush them all with lawsuits like before.
There's no way around it.
Get paid to code OSS
no surprise here... someone was bound to take over.
Maybe they will learn that technology is a multi-headed hydra. Chop off one head, and 5 others will grow to take its place. You can stop innovation, no matter how hard you try,
Viva la resistance!
Despite all their bluster to the contrary, copying bits is not theft. Downloading a MP3 off the net is no more dishonest than calling your local radio station and requesting that they play a particular song and then taping it off the air.
In the old days, musicians made their livings by performing live; their success or failure depended on their skill at performance and self-promotion; the only barriers were the cost of their instruments and thier ability to find venues to play. Then, recording came along, and live performace became just another way to promote album sales. Because of the high barrier to entry, the only way to make a record was to get a contract with a big company. The band's talent ceased to matter -- success or failure became a matter of what the record company wanted to promote. Now we are seeing the pendulum swing back the other way. The barriers to producing recorded music have mostly gone away -- a $20k home studio can duplicate what used to take a professional studio. A free web site can potentially reach as many people as an expensive billboard or magazine ad. File sharing programs can let their music reach as many listeners as if they were getting wide radio play.
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
Then you know what? They'll have to find an answer to their problem... and it is their problem. The technologies are advancing.. with or without the record companies. No amount of litigation, short of the death penalty, is going to stop P2P file-sharing. The record companies will have to find another way to ensure money reaches artists... and if they don't, someone else will, and groups like the RIAA will go the way of the dodo. Bet on it.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
To all who discuss about the good and bad of music exchange over the internet, I refer to this, mirrored here for an economist's perspective on why napster/gnutella/morpheus etc... are good things.