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Kazaa Founder Wants Us To Find "Legitimate" Files

Just because I'm an writes "The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Kevin Bermeister and Michael Speck have been developing technology to return search results on file sharing programs that point to pay-for content from the copyright holders. The article reports that there are trials planned for Australian ISPs, with interest from elsewhere on the globe."

75 comments

  1. kill it by Smelly+Jeffrey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    kill that dead horse

    1. Re:kill it by theaveng · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Kill what? Kazaa? Nah. It still has a useful purpose, even as "only" the second most-popular method of filesharing.

      >>>When an ISP's customers use a file sharing program such as LimeWire to search for a pirated music track, they are instead presented with a list of search results containing legitimate versions of the song and are given the opportunity to buy it instantly.
      >>>

      I think this is a good solution. Not that I would buy the song, since I prefer uncompressed CDs, but still it's a good way to remind people that there are legal methods of obtaining entertainment. An even better idea would be links to free websites. If for example someone searches "Heroes", they would be directed to either nbc.com or hulu.com where the show is available for free (but legal) viewing.

      --
      FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    2. Re:kill it by whoda · · Score: 5, Funny

      It has a useful purpose as a Spyware infection delivery device.

    3. Re:kill it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > If for example someone searches "Heroes", they would be directed to either nbc.com or hulu.com where the show is available for free (but legal) viewing.

      That is the job of the search engine, not of some ISP filter. What if I don't want the hulu.com website?

    4. Re:kill it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hulu's only available in the US, same for NBC.com. So, neither of these solutions would work for an Australian ISP.

      Add to that the load required to do deep packet filtering on all of your traffic, and you have a recipe for terrible performance, lots of false positives and annoyed customers.

      I predict an increase in the amount of traffic going over SSL.

    5. Re:kill it by Whiteox · · Score: 1

      I thought that was Limewire's job.

      --
      Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
    6. Re:kill it by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

      I don't use either one, but you're thinking of something else.

      http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/p2p/

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
    7. Re:kill it by risk+one · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Are you serious? A good solution? The ISP not just throttling my traffic when I use a P2P program, but actually modifying it, to show not what the application I'm running should show me, but something they think I ought to see. That's worse than DRM, that's worse than most things they've come up with so far. This isn't a creative solution, it's a a fucking man-in-the-middle attack. And all of it on a very dodgy definition of illegality. Downloading is not illegal (just making the material available) so searching definitely isn't illegal. So I'm doing something that's not illegal, and they start interfering with my traffic because they think it would be 'better' if I downloaded some other version.

      What if I already own the cd? What if I don't want DRM-laden crap? What if they got it wrong and I did actually want free content? Come to think of it, it would actually be quite lucrative for them to accidentally set their threshold too high, so I can't find my free content through all the paid-for DRM'ed content. Any ISP that implements this completely betrays their customers trust and deserves to die quickly.

    8. Re:kill it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they made it work in a legal fashion, people will just create a new way of trading files.

      Scour
      Napster
      Kazaa
      Limewire ...

    9. Re:kill it by Whiteox · · Score: 1

      Interesting link.
      To be clearer, APC reported that 25% of mp3 downloads via Limewire contain malware of some description.
      Boxes with Limewire installs that I've seen are always infected. Mind you, people that download with Limewire also visit infected sites anyway.
      A new host file and tools from Malwarebytes helps greatly.

      --
      Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
  2. What planet are these people on? by apodyopsis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What planet are these people on?

    If people want to pay for it then they'll go to iTunes.

    If they do not then they will use another P2P system instead.

    Having the ISP intercept and redirect their traffic will only annoy the consumers and damage the reputation of the ISP. Much like the trials of Phorm in the UK - which has lead to customer desertion and legal challenges.

    I wonder if the people who come up with such stupid ideas even use the internet sometimes.

    1. Re:What planet are these people on? by iosq · · Score: 5, Funny

      What planet are these people on?

      Australia We seem to be the Guinea Pigs for half these retarded plans.

    2. Re:What planet are these people on? by theaveng · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      >>>I wonder if the people who come up with such stupid ideas even use the internet sometimes.

      They use it.

      But that's not enough. They want to CONTROL how it's used as well. (They must be Socialists/democrats.) Anyway, I was under the impression that this new idea merely offers the suggestion of legal methods, like watching "Lost" at abc.com..... it doesn't block access to a bittorrent of Lost if that's what you actually desire.

      --
      FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    3. Re:What planet are these people on? by calmofthestorm · · Score: 1

      I'd buy it if it were significantly cheaper than a physical copy and not crippled. Oh wait, that will never happen.

      Good thing I like indie titles anyway, which are either free, non-broken, or both.

      --
      93rd rule of Slashdot: No matter how obvious my sarcasm is, my comment will be taken seriously by someone.
    4. Re:What planet are these people on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, all I have to do is pretend to be a site that legitimately sells songs, and they will list me? COOL! Now I can make money off the stuff I pirated!

    5. Re:What planet are these people on? by eiapoce · · Score: 1

      They want to CONTROL how it's used as well. (They must be Socialists/democrats.)

      They are not socialists nor commonists nor democrats: They are "OLIGOPOLISTS", the leading edge of the system and thats's much worse. Extending their logic of "control" the next step is to automatically have your ISP auto-sue you for not following their advice. If given the possibility those oligopolists would go as far as automagically judge and fine you the appropriate damages (3fantastrillion dollars) taking them directly from your bank accounts.

      And this just for thinking of watching LOST which, BTW, is pure horseshit...

    6. Re:What planet are these people on? by apathy+maybe · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Want to know why?

      A "western" "developed" (capitalist) country, English speaking (in the main), and a relatively small population. Things can be tested out and tried, and if there are objections, then these can be taken into consideration before (if) the product ever makes it to market.

      Potentially pissing off 21 million people is a lot better then potentially pissing off 60 million or 300 million.

      Why not New Zealand? Well, maybe less then five million people means that the sample size isn't quite big enough? I don't know.

      --
      I wank in the shower.
    7. Re:What planet are these people on? by Sleepy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Nice way to damage your own argument, by introducing off-topic and irrelevant "socialist/democrat" McCain flamebait.
      At least get your terms straight. :-)

      Socialism, BTW, is when the state controls corporations.

      When corporations control information (and the state, since people don't like information control) it is called "fascism". Fascism shares a lot in common with 'mercantilism', the system of corporate rule in the Colonies which lead to the Boston Tea Party, and so the USA.

    8. Re:What planet are these people on? by theaveng · · Score: 1

      >>>Socialism, BTW, is when the state controls corporations.

      I was under the impression that it's the other way round. Corporations control the state, and the socialists merely give lip-service to the People, while secretly hatching deals that will enrich the corporations further. (Such as passing a Democrat/Biden Anti-bankruptcy bill which allows corporations to default, but not citizens.)

      --
      FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    9. Re:What planet are these people on? by Idiomatick · · Score: 2, Informative

      Wait wait Pro-IP and the Patriot act was pushed by which party?
      Oh yeahhhh, every senator that initially voted against the patriot act or abstained was a democrat. In final call 62 dems and 3 reps voted against it. In renewal 124dems and 13reps voted against it. For Pro-IP 29dems opposed/abstained 23reps opposed/abstained.

      So maybe you should think about who has been trying to control the populace (not saying either side is good but...).

      Also: "Anyway, I was under the impression that this new idea merely offers the suggestion of legal methods, like watching "Lost" at abc.com..... it doesn't block access to a bittorrent of Lost if that's what you actually desire." i suggest you RTFA ....
        "In plain English, that means when people search for illegal pirated files they will find only legal versions, which they may then buy. The legal version is delivered by the ISP, which receives a cut of the revenue, and the charge is added to the customer's monthly internet bill."
       
      Also from the article they practically Godwin themselves. "the technology can be used to block child-porn searches" somebodythinkofthechildren.

    10. Re:What planet are these people on? by afabbro · · Score: 1

      Socialism, BTW, is when the state controls corporations.

      Which is also known as fascism. Wacky.

      --
      Advice: on VPS providers
    11. Re:What planet are these people on? by skeeto · · Score: 1

      Australia We seem to be the Guinea Pigs for half these retarded plans.

      Don't you mean New Guinea Pigs?

  3. Not interested by owlnation · · Score: 5, Informative

    Those Kazaa folks cheerfully installed adware and spyware on users computers for personal profit. It's worth remembering this when they say anything. They are greedy, selfish, mindless jerks, and most certainly can never be trusted whatsoever.

    1. Re:Not interested by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'll install Kazaa on my system right after I install Realplayer, Quicktime, and an exe file some nice Nigerian prince sent me.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    2. Re:Not interested by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aren't they the same folks behind Skype?

    3. Re:Not interested by Ron_Fitzgerald · · Score: 1

      To be fair, KaZaa went the spyware route AFTER it was sold to some other company. The original founders went on to create. Skype, which was then sold to eBay.

      --
      ~ Ron Fitzgerald
    4. Re:Not interested by flahwho · · Score: 1

      great, but that still doesn't change the fact that kazaa did (or still does)partake in spyware spreading via their networks.

      Why would anyone purchase and download leagally, any legitimate software package from a network which is notorious for spreading the disease?

    5. Re:Not interested by ksd1337 · · Score: 2, Funny

      You forgot to install Bonzi Buddy. And I can send you some really cool smileys for free!

    6. Re:Not interested by badkarmadayaccount · · Score: 1
      Man, that sounds like me when I was 8. Seriously, boy was I dumb. Ah, now I remeber all those nights with a HOWTO page in IE, and the registry editor fired up (well, I wasn't that dumb).

      Good times. ~

      --
      I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.
  4. Don't mess with my searches by TheP4st · · Score: 5, Interesting

    FTA:

    "When an ISP's customers use a file sharing program such as LimeWire to, for example, search for a pirated music track, they are instead presented with a list of search results containing legitimate versions of the song and are given the opportunity to buy it instantly."

    The day my ISP start manipulating my searches is the day when I cancel my subscription and move to greener pastures.

    --
    "I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
    1. Re:Don't mess with my searches by Ihmhi · · Score: 1

      Because we all have a slew of choices readily available to us.

    2. Re:Don't mess with my searches by alecwood · · Score: 0

      Traffic streaming and a loss of net neutrality surely means that soon there will be no greener pastures available. Once the backbone's neutrality is lost, small ISP's customers can be shut out until a corporate giant buys the small ISP cheap and therefore gains control over its customers. All that's needed to remove any real choice in ISP is a deal between Comcast etc and companies like News International

      --
      Real happiness lies in the completion of work using your own brains and skills.
  5. Sign me up! by oodaloop · · Score: 3, Funny

    FTFA:

    "Files that aren't present on the list of illegal files are not blocked or impeded in any way."

    Great! I'll just take your word for it then.

    --
    Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  6. Goatse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sounds like that sharemonkey crap.

  7. "legitimate" != "paid for" by mcgrew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yahoo! had their music search, and I was incredibly disappointed that it simply refused to return any free (as in beer) content. A friend of mine (Joe Frew, I wrote about him in the old K5 Paxil Diaries) had another friend host dozens of his original songs, I linked them from my (now defunct) web site, and you could not find these MP3s on any search engine!

    Google is just as bad, even though they're getting better; tha last time I searched "Huckleberry Finn" (in the public domain) the first three hits were Amazon and the like. This is IMO incredibly shoddy.

    There are literally thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of songs out there in myriad places whose artists WANT you to hear.

    Trying to sell bits is insane, actually "buying" bits is even crazier, as crazy as buying a bottle of water when there's a perfectly good drinking fountain handy. Don't sell bits, sell the medium that stores the bits! If you're a band, sell tickets and merch and use your bits to make fans.

    Nobody talented ever starved or was forced into another profession from copyright infrinegent, but many talented folks have starved or been forced out by obscurity.

    BTW, there are thousands of FREE MP3s, OGGs, SHNs and FLACs on archive.org. If Kazaa's founder wants to go legit, he should make a service that allows us to find the truly free songs. If I want to hear the top 40 I'll just turn the radio on.

    1. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by Emb3rz · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Please mod parent flamebait..

    2. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The problem with free indie music is that it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. The existing studio system might suck as gatekeepers (these were the people who gave Britney Spears a recording contract, after all). But at least when you see a studio-signed recording artist you get SOME assurance that the album will at least be professionally produced and that the artist has SOME talent (Ashley Simpson and Kelly Osbourne aside).

      If indie music is to really overthrow the studio system, the field needs some form of gatekeepers. Mere word of mouth isn't enough (too many really talented artists will be ignored in favor of talentless hacks who just happen to have a lot of myspace friends).

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    3. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by eiapoce · · Score: 2, Informative

      Suggest this to your friend:

      http://www.jamendo.com/ Jamendo is a website with free, legal and unlimited music published under Creative Commons licenses. You can loose one or more weeks listening to the traks there... all legit and free.

    4. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by catbertscousin · · Score: 1

      But . . . he's right. It's AC flamebait. Why not mod it down?

      --
      No good deed goes unpunished. - Avon, Blake's 7
    5. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by ciderVisor · · Score: 1

      A good sign that music has some sort of worth is if someone other than the band in question has put up the money to have a run of silver discs manufactured. Simply having free files available for download is just not enough these days.

      --
      Squirrel!
    6. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but look at the crap that passes into the masses as "Popular hits" from major labels. I, personally, think that too many people think the way do and are herded into liking the lowest common denominator. I wish MP3.com hadn't gone the way of dodos when Robertson sold it.

      Beethoven, Mozart and Bach are still played and used in many different way; but, look at how much other music has come and gone since their era. I wonder how much of the once popular music died because it really wasn't all that good.

    7. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can loose one or more weeks listening to the traks there... all legit and free.

      Is there a legit and free way to tighten one or more weeks?

    8. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by Captain+Spam · · Score: 1

      The existing studio system might suck as gatekeepers (these were the people who gave Britney Spears a recording contract, after all).

      And...

      If indie music is to really overthrow the studio system, the field needs some form of gatekeepers. Mere word of mouth isn't enough (too many really talented artists will be ignored in favor of talentless hacks who just happen to have a lot of myspace friends).

      In a way, you're either contradicting yourself or overlapping your arguments. In a way. Okay, maybe a bit of an out-of-the-way way, but what you just described with the "just happen to have a lot of MySpace friends" artist could easily be reinterpreted to describe how Paris Hilton got a recording contract ("like, all her cool rich friends and stuff! ^_^ lol etc" can almost trivially map to a talentless indie hack or camwhore with a lot of MySpace friends).

      Now, you might say that this isn't relevant, that what you're looking for is some "official" authority to act as a theoretical gatekeeper and AVOID the situation you described. But the question comes, what kind of gatekeeper? As your example showed, the "people-based" gatekeeper (MySpace, et al) is just as fallible as the "studio exec" gatekeeper (whoever felt it was a good idea to sign Britney Spears). And there's no such thing as a purely objective gatekeeper when it comes to music; it IS art, after all, and everybody's got their own opinions. I mean, SOMEBODY likes Britney Spears enough to have kept her in the public eye this long, right?

      Just my opinion on the matter. It doesn't matter what kind of gatekeeper's giving you an opinion; in the end, it's only the gatekeeper's opinion, and you still need to make your own decisions eventually.

      --
      Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
    9. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by chakmol · · Score: 1

      Indeed Jamendo is good. There is a lot of crap there, but the good stuff is really good. I've half filled a hard drive with it already and have sent out lots of donations, of which the artist gets almost all of it.

      One problem that is creeping up there, many artists will only post one really short song with a link to their webpage. If they'll post a collection, and I like it, I'll pay about what a CD would have cost, but for one song, I don't stay long.

      I like their torrents and keep my collected ogg files flowing almost all the time.

    10. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      The problem with that idea is this: There are way too many mods that reward/punish based on groupthink. I myself have been rewarded/punished several times based strictly on groupthink. I have also noticed mods can swing very wildly when something goes against groupthink. I once gave a list of the features that I believe Linux requires if they are going to push it as a replacement for Windows,and in a single day it swung all the way from +4 insightful to -5 flamebait to finally end at +5 insightful. So while I don't see a point in wasting my time trying to influence mods I can see why some can.

      Now as for TFA. The problem with an idea like this is there are 2 ways it can really turn nasty,and if they actually want to make a profit on this they'd probably have to turn to one or the other. After all,who actually jumps on a P2P program with a desire to whip out their CC,especially for content that will either be crippled by DRM or at such a low crappy bitrate as to not be worth anything? So IMHO the only way this would work is they either block the real network so that the only search results returned are their for-pay ones,in which case folks will start to encrypt or abandon that filesharing client en mass,or they have the program "red flag" anyone who does x number of searches without giving them a CC number and then sell the list to the *.A.A lawyers. And considering it is from the guys that made Kazaa I wouldn't be surprised if they did either or both. I just hoped they stuffed their pockets with as much VC as possible,because this thing will be DOA.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    11. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by Emb3rz · · Score: 1

      I'm feeding this troll, sorry. :(

      if it's really flamebait, why would the mods need Emb3rz to point that out?

      Some mods (though it's recommended that they don't) browse at 1 point comments and higher. As such, they wouldn't see that comment. With my Karma bonus putting my comment to 2 points it would be visible to them. This, then, serves to draw additional attention to a comment that was (at the time of my original posting) in need of moderation.

      Should mods automatically carry out the requests of people who assume that they are incompetent?

      No, they should simply look at what another's opinion is and reason on whether they agree.

      That's why I think Emb3rz's request is off-topic -- it is completely unnecessary and contributes nothing to the discussion

      The idea of community moderation in the Slashdot context is that good comments get seen by more people, poor comments don't get seen unless you want to see them. Looking at the situation in that light, then, my comment did add something to the discussion in that a community member's opinion was voiced as to the validity of another person's thoughts (in this case, an utter lack of thought and complete nonsense).

      "hey, that's my guy you're making fun of! He's popular among me, you know!"

      It takes neither an expert nor a fanboy to tell that the comment I asked be modded down was thoroughly useless and only detracted from the conversation.

      Despite popular opinion, "Flamebait" and "he wasn't very nice" are emphatically NOT the same thing, nor should they be.

      Flamebait can take the form of "not very nice." In this case, it did. When something is posted that could only possibly elicit a harsh/negative response using subtler language, it's often trolling. When it's an outright attack then it's usually flamebait.

      Despite what you may think, requests for "mod up" and "mod down" are not only a regular occurrence on Slashdot, but they are often quite helpful to seeing the whole picture behind a comment. As "whoosh!" points out a joke that has been missed (thereby aiding those less in the know as to the fact that it was a joke at all), "mod parent informative" may elicit further research on a topic from someone with mod points, who then in turn may decide that it was, in fact, an informative comment. These requests have a valid place in our comment system.

    12. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by AmberBlackCat · · Score: 1

      Those gatekeepers also have to have various musical interests. With the free music sites I tried, I found it very difficult to find anything I would call Hip Hop or R&B, and certainly nothing I would call Soul or Neo-Soul. There are some people out there who would say all of that music is garbage and not really music anyway. If all the gatekeepers were like that, it would be a problem for everybody whose musical interests don't match that of the gatekeeper. Also make sure the gatekeeper isn't one of the people who maintain GIMP.

      As stated before, the low barrier to entry only works if you have some sort of organization. Some people may have enough free time to listen to every single artist until they find a good one that comes by, but people like me don't. It would be like reading every blog on the internet until I come across some I like. But I don't think the mainstream music industry is any better at separating good music from bad. They're just better at getting you to listen to it all. The music plays on your radio in the background while you're doing other things, or between segments on radio shows. And on television it plays as part of a music video, so you get to see maybe sexy people or an interesting story while listening to the music. I think the independent artists would do well to implement those methods for themselves. Music videos for all of the independent artists, and a wealth of Indie radio stations would probably kill the RIAA faster than BitTorrent could.

    13. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Not to mention, you honestly (in your heart of hearts) don't detect just a little fanboyism in Emb3rz's request?

      He's not in my "fans" list, nor in my "friends" list. I detect more than a little jealousy in your post, mister coward.

      The AC in question (You?) was indeed being inflamatory, and completely incorrectly; the musicians I know are not RIAA superstars, they're just talented huys who make CDs and play in bars.

      "Flamebait" is a comment that makes one want to reply "FOAD". It does indeed apply in that case.

    14. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      About the only differences between now and when I started buying records back when I was a teenager is there is a lot more music, it's digital, and unlike then, today's only "gatekeeper" is Clear Channel.

      Then, like now, the radio played mostly dreck. I didn't discover the Yardbirds from the radio; the radio didn't play them. I discovered Yardbirds music (Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton) from local bands playing their music. I didn't discover Led Zeppelin from the radio, I walked into a record store and Led Zeppelin 1 was playing and I was blown away and bought it right then. Ray Foster, the drummer in my band at the time, turned me on to the Cream (more Clapton) among others. My crazy friend Tom Egbert came up to me one evening after school, "man, you GOT to hear this album!" so we went to his house and he was right, Jimi Hendrix KICKED ASS. But the local pop station (equivalent to today's Clear Channel) wouldn't play them.

      Like you say, Britney Spears, Ashley Simpson and Kelly Osbourne, if your gatekeepers did their fucking jobs you would never have heard of them, or the Archies (late 1960s bubblegim pop). If you believe the "gatekeeper" bullshit you've swallowed the RIAA hype.

      YOU decide if you like Britney Spears, Pink Floyd, of Joe Frew. You don't need no asswipe from the RIAA or clear channel to tell you what you do or don't like. Joe Crashtest says "man, you GOT to hear Indie Joe and the Drunken Monkeys" and you download it and it sucks, so what? Just delete the damned thing!

      Only someone with no self-esteem who has no taste (good or bad) needs a gatekeeper to tell them what to like or what not to like. I'll trust my friends, online and off, long before I'll listen to some corporate suit who's only in it for the money.

    15. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Bullshit. The only good sign that music has some sort of worth is if you listen to it yourself and decide for yourself that it doesn't suck.

      Period. Just because some corporate suit thought a song could make money does NOT give it worth. A song's value is determined by one metric: if YOU think it's good. Everything else is meaningless.

    16. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      You can loose one or more weeks

      Tell me how, I'd love to set one or two weeks free!

    17. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huckleberry Finn has full text of the book as the third google result. The first two are, of course, to Wikipedia.

    18. Re:"legitimate" != "paid for" by alecwood · · Score: 0

      There are way too many mods that reward/punish based on groupthink.

      Like those who mod as "troll" anyone critical of how the rest of world might be affected by decisions taken in the US?

      --
      Real happiness lies in the completion of work using your own brains and skills.
  8. Kawhazaa? by Drakkenmensch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    People still use Kazaa? I gave up on that lame duck the moment I realized that 99% of all songs listed where just 15 minutes longs recordings of static, screeching noise and one highly interesting instance of a 7 seconds long recording of Madonna saying "You stupid F***!!!"

    1. Re:Kawhazaa? by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Who would have thought that a classy lady like Madonna would have such a potty mouth? I guess nursing homes really do change people.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    2. Re:Kawhazaa? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      re: your sig.
      The only greater oxymoron is Linux desktop.

    3. Re:Kawhazaa? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...a 7 seconds long recording of Madonna saying "You stupid F***!!!"

      A audio clip that was almost immediately remixed into a number of new songs.

  9. Almost got it right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I want a system that consolidates searching and links to all freely licensed content. There's plenty of it, if you know where to look, and it's all I need. It's just kind of a pain to track it down.

  10. Target Audiance? by FrostDust · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't think people searching on P2P networks for free music are willing to acquire the same music at a higher price.

  11. Hipocrysy by bmwEnthusiast · · Score: 1

    So the guy who said "lets build a p2p app to exchange files illegal and i'll advertise in it and make much profit" is telling us we need to find legitimate files and will be re-directed clients to purchasable media? Hahahaahahahaha aaaaaahahahahahahahah Sucker!

  12. Illegitimate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think this is a symptom of a much larger problem: file illegitimacy and deadbeat file creators. Those file creators should be offering support to the mothers of those files. This wham-bam-thank-you-mam file creation has to stop. I think it's a sign of poverty in some computing communities. If we bolster those communities: offer more education, jobs, community activities and support.

    If we don't, those files will grow up to be members of gangs and resort to other criminal activity. Teaching abstinence doesn't work. People are going to go out and follow their human instinct and create files. We need to teach file creation control. And if necessary, abortion: sometimes you just have to delete a file - it's a hard decision and no file creator takes it lightly, but it has to be done. And we have to think of the health of the computer.

    That's all. I didn't mean to make this a pro-deletion post.

  13. Well, I already paid for it... by da5idnetlimit.com · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I bought a full Pink Floyd set when I was younger.

    now all the cds are scratchy and doesn't want to play anymore.

    Nevertheless, if I am to believe the editors screechs, what I really bought is a licence for those songs...

    => I shouldn't have to buy full price for a new set, they should sell me the cds at cost of plastic and I just exchange them with the ones I have. Or I can argue that I have the RIGHT to download them, as I already have a licence for them.

    Don't believe me ? Have a look at Walt Disney dvds. They are the only ones that propose a replacement disk at cost because they only sell you a licence to view...

    =>Then the editor turns out a REMASTERED version ,which is covered by another licence, and that I don't have the rights for. The version I had is not findable in the market anymore, the editor changed names or something else, and I cannot get a replacement disk. Which they never offered in the first place.

    Also I pay a tax on every recording medium I buy, to compensate the copies I will make for my private use, as I do not resell them.

    Astonishingly the law doesn't recognize this tax as a blanket licence for use as a person. They want us to pay the tax and then pay an additional blanket licence.

    So the market is skewed in favor of the editors that make it so that you have to pay and pay again FOR THE SAME THING.

    A form of racket...

    --
    It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
    1. Re:Well, I already paid for it... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      A form of racket...

      only possible through the coercive force of government.

      Red pill?

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  14. Why not New Zealand. by professorguy · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Why is Austrailia the incubator for the new fascism? Two words: Rupert Murdoch.

    Where ever his media has significant market share, the population has made wild swings toward corporatism.

    1. Re:Why not New Zealand. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uncle Rupert said that I can have Australia for my 21st birthday pressie if I get good marks at school.
      He's nice like that.

  15. CC/XMP by c_g_hills · · Score: 2, Informative

    It occurred to me that one could use Creative Commons in conjunction with XMP (metadata tagging) to construct a peer-to-peer network for easier sharing of legitimate files combined with attribution.

    More information about XMP and CC:-
    http://wiki.creativecommons.org/XMP

  16. Nothing is available on hulu... by Rix · · Score: 1

    If you aren't American, so they can go fuck themselves.

    1. Re:Nothing is available on hulu... by electrictroy · · Score: 1

      As it should be.

      Why should American advertisers subsidize the free shows for Europeans? For Example: It's not as if you can go buy Scott paper towels after you see the online ad, so why should Scott pay for European entertainment? That's why Scott and other advertisers strictly limit access to Americans-only.

      And vice-versa. I can't watch BBC or other European shows online, because I can't buy European products.

      --
      The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
  17. Pay only? by nurb432 · · Score: 1

    Sounds like they don't realize that you can have free AND legal content. Perpetuating the lies the RIAA is pushing that everything you get without paying is piracy.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  18. But I can watch it online, and without ads by Rix · · Score: 1

    It's going to be really hard for hulu to gain acceptance outside the US after telling everyone to fuck off.

    Oh, and I certainly can buy Scott paper towels here in Canada.

  19. Snake oil. by rtechie · · Score: 1

    There is no way this could possibly work.

    They could go for hashes, but they would have to have a hash of every file they wanted to protect (not too difficult) and then break into the download stream to intercept the download traffic, completely download the file, re-hash it and then block that specific file for that specific user. The bandwidth, CPU, common sense, restrictions would make this impossible.

    What they're doing is filenames. If you search for "Britney Spears" in your P2P window and it comes up with a list of files, if you try to download any of those files (legit or not) you'll get a pop-up browser window that will take to you a site to buy Britney Spears music (never mind that you might have been searching for a video, or a theme).

    This simply won't work. Most P2P is encrypted, so they're not going to be able to decrypt the packets in realtime to get the searches. P2P protocols change so often and are so poorly documented that architecting an MitM attack against the unencrypted PROTOCOL would be dicey. And even if they did, that doesn't allow them to run arbitrary actions on the user's PC unless they install some sort of troyjan, and even then it may not work.