Report Says 36.4% of World's Computers Infringe on IP

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "According to a new report by Digital Music News, 36.4% of the world's computers have LimeWire installed. Given their claim that filling an iPod legally would cost about $40,000, they're pretty sure that most of those computers are infringing upon at least a few imaginary property rights. BitTorrent shouldn't feel left out, though. BitTorrent actually uses more bandwidth, but the article suggests that this is because it is used to share larger files, like movies."

Comments

I bet it's closer to 100%

[melted]

If you count IP infringements made by software vendors. Face it, in the world where One Click patent can even exits, you're _guaranteed_ to infringe on someone's intellectual property if your code is more complicated than "Hello world". And software vendors can't guarantee non-infringement, either, because there are tens of thousands of vaguely worded patents.

thankfully

[SoupGuru]

Thankfully all of us that have eMule installed are downloading purely legal files.

Re:It always amuses me

[Hognoxious]

Have you heard of SHHHHHHH?

Re:It always amuses me

[c_g_hills]

usenet.com is commonly confused with Usenet. One is a for-profit company; the other is a global, decentralized, distributed Internet discussion system.

Re:It always amuses me

[rob1980]

The first rule of NNTP is that we do not talk about NNTP.

The Report Continues...

[flaming error]

31.2% of computers infringe TCP.
22.9% infringe UDP.

The report doesn't mention other protocols, but as IPv6 gains ground, we're all sure to see lots more infringement.

Voluntary systems scans

[TheLostSamurai]

From the report linked to in the article, the data was collected when users went to a site (pcpitstop.com) and allowed their computers to be scanned so that the software could find "performance improvements" and make suggestions for their machine. Although I'm sure it was buried in the fine print of the TOS, I wonder how many people realized they were allowing this type of information to be sold to data mining and/or marketing companies.

Re:Voluntary systems scans

[Anonymous Coward]

So, 36.4% of computers of users who are dumb enough to use a site like that have Limewire installed?

Is this like one of those sites that tells me "YOUR REGISTRY MAY BE CORRUPT!!!"... on a linux box?

Almost all computers use IP

[corsec67]

Since the concept of intellectual property is almost completely meaningless, the title must be about Internet Protocol, and I bet close to 99% of the worlds computers have IP, and most use it every day.

Oh, you mean that 36.4% of the computers have tools installed that facilitate copyright infringement?

Can we please stop using the term "IP" or "Intellectual Property" and actually specify what we are talking about, which in this case is copyright infringement? Especially since the source articles never use either of those two term in them?

It would be very hard to infringe on trademarks using limewire or bittorrent in any way, and the same goes for patents unless the patents cover the implementation of the software.

Re:36.4% of the world's computers have LimeWire in

[Locklin]

Indie artists can use HTTP (and Torrent if necessary), theres plenty of willing hosts.

The Live Music Archive The live music archive provides high quality live concerts in a download-able format. The Internet Archive aims preserve and archive as many live concerts as possible for current and future generations to enjoy. All music in this Collection is from trade-friendly artists and is strictly noncommercial, both for access here and for any further distribution. Jamendo Jamendo offers free access and free download of music tracks, published with Creative Commons licences. On Jamendo, the Artists choose to give access to their music for free to the users. Users are encouraged to donate to artists, and artists earn money from add revenue. Magnature Listen to complete albums for free. If you like what you hear, download an album for as little as $5 (you pick the price), or buy a real CD, or license our music for commercial use. MP3s & WAVs, and no copy protection (DRM). FreeIndie.com A smaller selection of independent artists in various genres. Free to download. IndieFeed A free podcast of independent artists from around the world. CBC Radio 3 A popular weekly podcast featuring new Canadian rock, pop, hip-hop, singer-songwriters, alt-country and electronica.

Re:That's It?

[PPH]

The other 2/3 are still waiting for Vista to boot. Or copy one CD.

(Ducking and running from the inevitable Troll mod points.)