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43 Million Americans Use P2P Software
robl writes "If the NYTimes article is correct then somewhere around 1 in 6 Americans apparently are unindicted felons. In the eyes of the public file swapping is as morally wrong as speeding on the NJ Turnpike. The rest of the article talks about the RIAA's carrot/stick/education approach and how they may find themselves entering into negotiations for some forms of file sharing. Also the EFF will be running ads in Rolling Stone next month asking if enthusiasts are tired of being treated like criminals."
1 in 4 Americans are under the age of 18; so yes, (more than) 1 in 6 Americans know how to use a computer.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
As a perfect example of P2P: Lets show some legit usage.
You can get 5.1-RELEASE i386 ISOs right now -- before they're publicly available on the FreeBSD FTP mirror at
glow.rh.rit.edu
May this post be indexed by spiders, and archived for all to see as my Internet epitaph.
Industry Offers a Carrot in Online Music Fight
In Battle Over Online Music, Industry Offers A Carrot
When you steal CDs from a store, the store loses those CDs. When you copy music, the original remains.
It might be a copyright violation, but it's certainly not "theft".
Don't worry about it. The government can't prosecute you unless they can identify the infringed works and prove that they have been registered with the copyright office. The same goes for the RIAA and MPAA.
Thanks to Portal of Evil News
/. submitters should stop giving them hits.
L: poenews
P: poenews
Still,
the thing is , just how do they conclude what the value of what any one item is. I personally don't even have much against the copyright laws the NET Act tries to enforce.... it's the way it is worded.
If you offer up one song, are you then responsible for the value of the copy of that song anyone who downloaded it from you then shares as well? It's impossible to tell really.
How the heck do they come up with things like: (NET Act)
if the offense consists of the reproduction or distribution of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000;
if the offense consists of the reproduction or distribution of 10 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of $2,500 or more;
obviously listing them in such a way implies that there are single CD's approaching the $1000 value limit or 10 approaching $2500, otherwise the numbers would not be so correlated... just how do they conclude these values, obviously it's not based on the pricetag you would pay for a single CD at Tower Records. Why not layout exactly how the value of a "phonorecord" is determined since it seems that the simple method of checking manufacturers suggested retail price is not the method.
The law would even be fairly acceptable if it weren't so vague, I always have condoned the theory that ignorance of it is no excuse for breaking the law, but frankly you could read this law over and over and still not know exactly what point you would have broken it at.
A quick google search shows that Waste is still available here, for what it's worth.
The obvious answer is that you do not own the copyright, therefore you are not permitted to redistribute it.
The fact that this escapes you makes me wonder what the hell you're doing arguing about it.
Yeah, right. Whatever. The vast majority of people just want free stuff. Games, software, music... they want it all.
I help out giving tech support in #winehq on freenode sometimes. We routinely get people in there asking in broad daylight for people to send them copies of CrossOver or WineX, or asking where they can be downloaded. Half the time, it's because they:
a) couldn't find them on KaZaA on Windows, and
b) want to run those types of programs on Linux anyway.
They do this apparently not realising that employees of both those companies idle in that channel.
So, if people want to kid themselves that P2P users are simply "trying before they buy" that's fine by me - if you spend an evening telling 13 year olds addicted to warez to piss off, and that no you won't send them CrossOver for free, then maybe you get a slightly more realistic perspective.
I think the EFF campaign is funny. "Tired of being treated like criminals?". Well, most people are. Sucks, doesn't it.
Meanwhile people who sit on KaZaa all day hurt the rest of us, see the sibling post about how shops are changing their game return policies.
All I know is that I have never received anything classified as spam in my "info" e-mail address. I have, so far, received only one email for the paid edition of nyt, and that carried huge "sorry for the inconvenience" text. Pretty acceptable to me. If it's not acceptable to you, fair enough.
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
I've learned how to vote on the subject. I look for the Compact Disk logo. No Logo, No Sale. So far I've managed to escape the cripled CD. Only the kids managed to pick up one. When it couldn't properly be ripped for the MP3 player, they learned to look for the label also. Remember you do have a vote that they will hear. It's called dollars. If no logo stuff doesn't sell at all, the artists will push for their stuff to be on a format the consumers will buy.
Have you run into any indie recording with DRM junk? I've not seen it yet. So far it's been mostly EMI and SONY that most often has the Compact Disk logo missing.
The truth shall set you free!
My first impression of the waiting room was "Damn, this is just like home room." Lots of long corridors with sealed windows, all meeting at critical nodes. That same cinder-block construction, with the same linolium floor. One visiting room had the same sort of chairs and tables I'd used in middle school. Another had a visiting room that looked just like the faculty lounge.
Think about it, how many of you remember the absolutely terrible traffic flow of your schools? How everyone seemed to have to pile through one particular intersection. It makes sense for a prison, but I think a lot of times they just cut and paste for schools.
There is also a whole lot of really cool video equipment and automatic doors. If you ever get the chance to visit a prison (and I mean VISIT, not STAY) I highly suggest it for all geeks.
If you want 2 buildings to campare: Hatboro Horsham High School, and the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. The overall layout may be different, but the details...
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming