Slashdot Mirror
The Porn Of Napster
Thomas M Hughes writes "Well, Napster is breathing its last breath. Filing for chapter 7 and slowly dying. Who better than to try and bring it back to life than a porn company? The article claims that the company wishes to use the Napster name to distribute free pornography across the Internet."
"'Along with Hollywood and the recording industry, we have become increasingly concerned about the level of copyright infringement inherent in the free peer-to-peer file swapping services,' Prast said."
If this is true, why would they want to use a brand name that was almost entirely devoted to copyright violation?
Napster itself died long time ago. It's just becoming a generic term to designate P2P services... they all say "like napster but it works" :)
I wonder if they are responsible for Pornster?
what the logo will look like now....
Anyone notice that in the article it mentions a 2.41 stock value and the quote at the foot of the article mentions a ~22% gain (.55)? It's no surprise I suppose considering that the porn industry is a multi-billion dollar one, but still kind of astounding. Another half million for Napster if they accept..
Logic is the ultimate device.
Additional coverage:
CNN
SiliconValley
Yahoo
I want to be punished by pornographers, if it means being tied to a post and tickled with feathers by big-breasted blondes. Compare this with being bent over by the RIAA, and having all the CD's I copied for fair use jammed blunt-ways up my butt.
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
Free porn? Wow! This is just what the Internet needs! coughUSENETcough.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Napster anagrams to "panters", so it must be fate!
("Pantser" works too...)
A lot of people seem to have missed these two quotes from the article:
"Along with Hollywood and the recording industry, we have become increasingly concerned about the level of copyright infringement inherent in the free peer-to-peer file swapping services,"
and
"Private Media claims to own the largest library of adult-oriented content in the world, with global copyrights to the content."
Assuming they stick to charging users for access to their network and making sure only their content gets "shared", it doesn't look like they'll be shut down by the RIAA, MPAA or sued into the ground for trading content without the adequate rights. Plus, it's not like the MPAA would be too concerned by porn flicks being traded on the service...
Simply for the reason that the top exec's at Napster want to keep their names "clean". If they sell out to a porn company, regardless of their (lack of) future involvement, it will limit their opportunities in the future. It's really sad that this is how it works, but true nonetheless.
Selling WOULD be the best business decision, Napster is a dead name otherwise -- and this is a way to bring in some cash (to pay creditors, employees, whatever). Too bad the CEO's wont soil their names to prevent bankrupcy...
"Private Media said it plans to use the Napster trademark to offer millions of adults worldwide the ability to swap adult-oriented content for free and to also gain access to "top quality" content at a reasonable price."
So one guy/gal buys the "top quality" stuff and then trades it to the rest of the Pornster users for free. How, exactly, does one make money this way?
-ted
I thought Napster was dead!
That's what they wanted you to believe.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
Read the article. Private wants to use its own copyrighted material as a base.
[i]Private Media claims to own the largest library of adult-oriented content in the world, with global copyrights to the content.
"Along with Hollywood and the recording industry, we have become increasingly concerned about the level of copyright infringement inherent in the free peer-to-peer file swapping services," Prast said.[/i]
I signed up for this service that promised to let me grab porn from other members' machines.
However, it keeps coming back with nothing but their MS-Word documents.
Table-ized A.I.
Why pay for the naptser brand name? Yeah free publicity... but seriously if their service is at all usuable it will spread by word of mouth about as fast as word of a porn only napster would.
ultimately, the owners/lenders/board members get to decide whom, what, and how much of Napster gets sold, and what the price is. Its the money people that have the final say, not the CEO, unless he is a majority owner. Those people are all for recovering as much as their losses as possible, and they are not going to be too worried about sullying the image of Napster, 'cuz its dead.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
OTOH, the porn industry, which may find it more difficult find (openly) sympathetic legislators, and has a much lower cost of entry, tends to compete vigorously. The porn industry does look for innovative methods to gain market share, to distinguish themselves from the other 600 business card size ads in Hustler. Sometimes this competition leads to Spam, other times it leads to extensive free content in newsgroups, or aggressively priced introductory offers.
Which means that Private Media Group may actually have the experience, motivation, and cash to make Napster work. This may provide a way to differentiate their product form their competitors. If they are successfull, it will be harder to argue that Napster's only use is for pirating, and further increase evidence that content monopolies are primarily concerned about loss of control.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
... They've finally created Fapster. =D
(reference to A!THL^WSexy Losers...)
If you are logged in, there is a setting you can adjust in preferences under the comments tab. If you scroll all the way down, You'll see this radio button:
Display Link Domains? (shows the actual domain of any link in brackets)
If you choose "Always show link domains", you always will.
Never trust an atom. They make up everything.
snatchster anyone?
"napster bad!!!"
(very bad, in a naughty kind of way, apparently)
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
All the searching was handled by centralized servers, not napster itself.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
There are already a bunch of services claming to bhe the "napster of porn", supposedly trading passwords to porn sites. but in actually they're probably prearranged deals. Give out a 'psudopassword' and let people resubscribe for a higher rate.
This would probably end up being the same kind of thing. I know this is a bit hypocritical to say, but the online porn world is full of some of the sleaziest people out there. I mean, how much spam is for porn sites? These people will use any deceptive marketing tactics they can to make money, or as they would say '$$'. I remember reading some supposed how-to guide for starting up a porn site, and it explained how to scam search engines. The acted like there was nothing wrong with doing that at all. And of course, these are the people who invented the popup window.
The most discussing thing, though, is the way they'll put copy up on their sites that totally degrades women, you know, "This fucking bitch wants the cock so bad," etc. Its just, well as I said, discussing.
I suppose I could theorize that the people who end up going into porn are already willing to throw off morality for profit, (but don't want the legal exposure of, say, being a drug kingpin)
But anyway, if these guys succeed in buying napster, it'll be a sad day for napster. Not that napster was really that great, but these guys probably don't have any intention of even letting people trade files, but rather simply using the napster trademark some kind of supped-up pay site. (and yeah, the stuff won't be free.)
One of the things I'd like to do, if autopr0n ever became a big thing, is try to create a place where people can find pornography without all the ridiculous bullshit, Spam, etc. I think porno can be profitable without being incredibly demeaning to the customers and the women who appear in it.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Isn't this already a problem with usenet?
Problem? Yeah, there's lots of porn on usenet. That's a problem?
I'll have to sue 'em. Sounds way to much like "Porno for the People" (p4p) :P
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
So one guy/gal buys the "top quality" stuff and then trades it to the rest of the Pornster users for free. How, exactly, does one make money this way?
Bit rate and file size limitations....
Was it really that hard to figure out?
They can also lock out specific files by hash code or something, so unless people downloaded and then reencoded their stuff, it wouldn't be an issue. Of course, people would do this, but that's what the bitrate/filesize limits are for.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
There's actually no such thing as public domain porn
what about this?
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
It's not like the technology is worth anything...
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
A method for propegating human genes between two people using no genetic science.
The Kama Sutra is attached as a reference manual.
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
The Private Media Group's ticker symbol says it all: PRVT.
(I stole this post from Fuckedcompany.)
The shareholder is always right.
Most definitely the RIAA. The porn industry is mostly run by the maffia, so if you lose all your money, consider yourself lucky.
Oh, and where exactly do you get this kind of information? I'ld really like to know...
It might seem glamourous to think this, but it's simply not true. The industry runs off of money and profit just like any other industry. The larger magazines/sites/filmmakers can afford to get better models and can also afford to treat their models/photographers/employees better. In actuality, the porn industry co-exists with hollywood/mainstream media...they use similar distribution channels and similar business models.
If you look at the history of Playboy Enterprises, Larry Flynt Publications (Hustler)...who might I add runs his own Linux-based weblog, and General Media Communications, Inc. (Penthouse). You will find that they are all owned and operated by corporations/individuals and follow the letter of the law...they have to, because they are watched closely by special interest groups.
And at least in the instance of Hustler, their website is running off of Linux.
Private Media Group Announces Offer for Napster Trademark and napster.com URL
Barcelona, September 12th, 2002/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Private Media Group Inc. (Nasdaq: PRVT) a worldwide leader in premium quality adult entertainment products, services and content, today announced that it has made an offer to Napster, Inc. to acquire the Napster trademark and napster.com domain name for one million shares of Private common stock.
Private's offer, if accepted by Napster, is subject to customary terms and conditions, including approval by the court having jurisdiction over Napster, Inc.'s bankruptcy proceeding.
With the Napster trademark, Private plans to create a unique peer-to-peer (P2P) environment that would offer the tens of millions of adult consumers worldwide the opportunity to share adult content for free as well as access top quality adult content at a reasonable price.
Napster is one of the most recognized names in P2P file-swapping services that allow users to trade and download files. At its height, Napster had 84 million users of its software and was the fastest-growing software application ever monitored by online tracking services.
Charles Prast, President and CEO of Private Media Group stated: "Along with Hollywood and the recording industry, we have become increasingly concerned about the level of copyright infringement inherent in free peer-to-peer file swapping services. It is estimated that up to 35% of all content downloaded from P2P sites is of an adult nature, which raises significant issues both in terms of copyright infringement and lack of controls of access by minors. It is an industry that presently has over 150 million users.
Mr. Prast continued: "At Private, we feel that there has been an excess of spamming, credit card fraud, abuse of consumer data, and price gouging among many on-line providers of adult content. We intend to use the strength of the Napster trademark to build a community for adults to share content provided by Private and our industry partners.
"Private has high standards, both from a regulatory and financial perspective with a 37 year track record of legal compliance. Private owns the largest library of quality adult content in the world, global rights to all our content, and strong technological know-how. All of these factors make Private uniquely suited to manage a viable and legal P2P network for consumers of adult content", said Mr. Prast.
Private Media Group is a leading global adult entertainment company that distributes its content over a wide range of media platforms, including narrow and broadband Internet, DVD and video, magazines, broadcasting and wireless technologies. Private owns the worldwide rights to the largest archive of high quality adult content in the world, which it distributes digitally worldwide and physically in over 35 countries.
This release contains, in addition to historical information, forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which reflect the Company's current judgments of those issues. However, because those statements are forward-looking and apply to future events, they are subject to such risks and uncertainties, which could lead to results materially different than anticipated by the Company.
For further information about Private Media Group, please contact in Barcelona, Spain:
PRIVATE MEDIA GROUP
André F. Ribeiro
Phone: +34 679 983 772
E-mail: andre@private.com
URL: www.prvt.com
GRUPO ALBIÓN
Alejandra Moore Mayorga
Phone: +34 91 531 23 88
Mobile: +34 670 799 33
E-mail: amoore@grupoalbion.com
Please visit our Download Zone, where you can find relevant information relating to this announcement in PDF format: http://www.tresddb.com/gadz/private.html.
The shareholder is always right.
Why just be a whore, when you can be a corporate whore?
we can rebuild this sig. we have the technology
Heh, well I don't really want to spend my whole life, or even really that much time looking at random porn on the internet.
:P
One of the reasons that autopr0n doesn't have as many links as some of the other TGPs is that rather then just a simple 5-7 word description, we actually go a bit more in-depth usually. Also, mods need to mark down the properties the image falls under (like Asian, lesbian, etc) so people can search for stuff.
It takes me like an hour or two to post just 32 links, which is what I try to go for when I'm on the ball.
(btw, if you're wondering what I mean by "we", I'm talking about myself and the other volunteer moderators for the site. There are like 30 or something, but only about 7 or 8 really active ones.)
Also, I do try to have a life. I'd like for AP to have a higher volume, though. If you'd like to help out you could sign up as a mod (just email me). And if you're just interested in links, you can look through the thousands that I have sitting in the queue
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Well, yeah. People are stupid, and it's easy to take there money. That dosn't mean that you should or that it's some how a good idea to do it.
:P. Will it contribute to the world? Will it actually let people find good pr0n quickly? I really doubt it. Instead they'll be mislead, by more 'controlled media' to buy crap from this company.
The other problem is that it creates a situation where everyone tries to pander to the lowest common denominator. Just look at the sorry-ass state of 'portals' before google came along. Google just gave us what we wanted and no bullshit, and now they serve up 97% of the links out there. (google is kind of my inspiration for ap. I figure the 'net pr0n world is so full of crap that if I just provide a non-pandering, bullshit-light site most people would prefer it)
But yeah, those other BS portals still make money, but they are still bullshit and they waste peoples time and they contribute nothing to the world at all.
Will this new napster make money? yeah, probably. Porn always makes money
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I'm talking about the text that accompanies the images. Stuff like "This bitch loves my cum" or "I got this chick drunk and played a trick!" or "See what this slut does for $20".
:P. I do check the pages out occasionally, and it's pretty lame.
Normally, I don't even see the text on porn sites, since I wrote a special browser that just downloads the linked pics
Anyway, a skank is a woman who's dirty and will probably give you an STD. Just because a girl is promiscuous doesn't mean she's a skank (porn producers usually require STD checking before hiring people). You're thinking of 'slut', which I find to be a rather retarded title. Basically insulting women for doing what 90% of guys would do if they had the chance.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
If this catches on, you could soon find porn all over the Internet.
Oh yeah, great plan. Centralized download management, virtually no verification of the legality of the content. It would be easier just to drop all your computer equipment off at the local FBI office.
porn wants to be free
13 year old white supremacists are shitty web designers.
No one wants to be a whore! It's vile exploitation and porn is it's ultimate extension. People pose for those pictures when they have run out of hope and self respect. Think about this hapening to your mother, sister or daughter.
The internet was not designed for this. It was designed to share computing resources and information, not to sell crap. Those who look at this as a good thing smear all the other causes they are associated with.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
We've all heard the adage on /. that a standard won't be adopted unless it's an order of magnitude improvement over the existing system.
Ever since the original Napster crashed and burned in mid-2000, several other P2P filesharing systems came up. Among college students (a fairly heavy market for porn), KaZaA is definitely the drug of choice.
Systems like KaZaA already have porn on them. *I* am certainly not one to download two programs to do what one already does well.
Napster fought the good fight, but now it's gone. It's lost all its mind-share.
R.I.P., Napster...
EOM
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
Of course, if someone uses something like this link (DON'T CLICK), the domain thing is useless...
If you'd read the article, you'd have found out that the company trying to buy Napster's domain already owns the copyrights on the porn they'd be distributing.
USENET is not a good forum for trading movies/video clips. Assembling a file from 100 parts, each part coming in 60 pieces is horrible. I don't care how automated they've made the USENET browsers file assembly, it still blows. If one little piece doesn't make it through, the entire file is useless. Give me Kazaalite for all my pr0n needs.
Not to mention P2P is searchable and has multiple sources for a file. You take what your news server gives you on USENET. It's like the difference between watching HBO or going to the video store.
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
I was at the Lapdance 2000 party put on at the Sundance festival by CRAPTV, the producers of such great movies as "Cannibal, the Musical," and "Orgasmo."
;-) He used the idea of peer-to-peer porn sharing to illustrate the huge threat/opportunity the industry was about to face.
Matt Stone and Trey Parker had invited my friend Mark Pesce (the inventor of VRML) to host a panel discussion entitled "What is this whole Internet thing, anyway?"
To illustrate the huge force that peer-to-peer networks would become within the media industry, Mark jokingly announced the IPO of his new company, Pornster (I came up with the logo, the P in Pornster was a penis with a cockring through it
This was at Sundance, mind you, where every third person is someone big in the entertainment industry. Amazing how clueless most of these media folks were, even in 2000. The presentation really made folks look at their roles as 'gatekeepers of entertainment.'
What place have the gatekeepers, when all the walls are gone?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
What is with all the Linux comments? I like to see linux running, but it really has nothing to do with the Mafia point.
Unless you believe the Mafia is stupid enough to keep putting its information in the hands of MS.
Now, youz ain't saying da mafia is stupid, are youz?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
(* BUT some people's minds work better through OOP, so it makes sense to let them use it. *)
Fine, paradigms are subjective. But why is the industry pounding the subjectivity of a few "celebrities" down everybody's throat?
If Java was balanced for different minds, it would *at least* had real functions in addition to classes.
(* The problem is, java makes things easy on the programmer (at least initially), *)
I don't find anything approachable about Java, at least not the API's. You can't use many of them in isolation; you are dragged via a long chain into the internal mind of some fad-surfer at SUN who wants to lock you into their own world in an MS-like way. Sure, some IDE's simplify some of this for ya, but IDE's can improve just about any horror a bit.
(* But java != OOP, java is just the most rabidly promoted (and overhyped) example of it. *)
Yes, but I still see Java-like hype in other materials also. The hype and cliches flow like water, yet none of it is backed by cited real evidence. PHB's buy into it all and shove it down the throats of workerbees.
A holy war is shoving it down our orafices, so it just may take a holy war to unshove it. I am an unshover.
BTW, as far as Java being "true OO", an agree-able defition of OO is rather elusive. It starts wars on comp.object all the time. However, most heavy OO fans seem to prefer something besides Java (like C++ or Eiffle or Smalltalk or Scheme).
(* Most people see through the bullshit eventually, when the magical technology fails to save them billions. *)
My observation is that they toss the current toy for the next big thing, just like a toddler spotting a new shiney thing, making him/her drop current toy. IOW, it is the *next* fad that draws them away, not rationality.
The industry makes more money when things change. If things don't change, then they sell less. Thus, there is pressure to overhype new things, and it trickles down to the trade-rags read by PHB's.
Table-ized A.I.