Slashdot Mirror
XP SP2 Torrent Shows Legal P2P's Promise
Downhill Battle writes "With Congress debating new legislation that would ban p2p networks (along with other innovations and beloved products), we thought it was important to demonstrate the huge potential of p2p software to benefit the public. So now at SP2torrent.com you can get Windows XP SP2 via BitTorrent." Update: 08/09 21:10 GMT by S : As commenters note, you can also get XP SP2 from Microsoft's site, but it's explained: "DO NOT CLICK DOWNLOAD IF YOU ARE UPDATING JUST ONE COMPUTER: A smaller, more appropriate download will be available soon on Windows Update."
Check out The Linux Mirror Project for example. Which has torrents for Slackware, Slax, Fedora, Mandrake, Knoppix, Debian, Gentoo & FreeBSD
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Why wait? Get it Here :)
I don't use my Windows machine for BitTorrent. I prefer the console client that comes with Linux.
btdownloadcurses --url "$URL" --max_upload_rate 5
That way I can start the download to my home machine at work and still have it done by the time I get there.
You can now get it directly from Microsoft.
Yes, it is entirely possible to slashdot a torrent. Each client polls a central server (or in more modern clients one of a number of servers) for new hosts and to update the server on its progress. If this server can't service all the polls from all the clients then a torrent has been ./ed.
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Yes -- it's linked from here:
a milyId=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displa ylang=en
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?F
Although Microsoft would prefer people that only need to install on a single machine wait for it to be pushed via Windows Update, which will be a considerably smaller download specific for your OS version.
Has the copyright owner approved the redistribtion of this patch by third parties? Or can this be described as "Legal P2P" only using some brand new defintion of "Legal"?
I think inexpensive distributed file hosting is a great idea, and I think P2P networks are a great way to implement that. But, copyright infringement is still copyright infringement, even if you're able to justify it to yourself.
Interestingly, the act's sponsor disagrees with you. Orrin Hatch claims that users of Kazaa and eDonkey assume that because the program is from a corporation, then it's major use must be legal.
it bans the setup of networks explicitly for exchanging pirated materials..
No, it says nothing about networks or piracy. Sounds like you might be arguing from ignorance. Since the INDUCE Act is trivially short, I'll post the whole thing here:
So what it says is that "inducing copyright infringement" is now a form of copyright infringement itself, which is already illegal.
That's a nonsensical and moderately dangerous path: creating redundant laws. Copyright infringement is already illegal. Inducing a crime is also already illegal. Therefore INDUCE either has absolutely no effect and was a waste of Congressional time, or it means that inducement of infringement will be interpreted more loosely in the future.
Note that under this act, Bram Moolenar would've been guilty for the publication of the BitTorrent protocol, which by his own admission was intended to aid in copyright infringement (of Phish concert tapes, which are illegal to share, even though the band has no intention of ever enforcing).
The "Save The iPod" stuff is a stretch, but it'd be possible to prosecute Apple under this law too. All you'd have to do is show that iPod sales are somehow higher due to illegal copying. I bet a survey could be done showing that buyers of iPods often had pre-existing MP3 music collections, and that some of that came from copyright infringement.
Furthermore, and more realistically, freenet and similar anonymizing networks would become illegal. Anyone running a freenet node will be subject to arrest.
SP2 is a free update. If I download it, put it on a CD, and give it to someone else to install, it's not illegal.
Oh yes it is. Reproduction and distribution are both exclusive to the copyright holder per 17 USC 106.
In that example, you are reproducing it probably beyond what MS has given you permission to do, and are definately distributing it without permission.
So that's illegal.
It doesn't matter if it's free. Free is a total non-issue.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
As others have said:
WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe, MD5: 59a98f181fe383907e520a391d75b5a7, size: 278,927,592 bytes
I downloaded the file from Microsoft, and the MD5 checks.