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."

Comments

kill it

[Smelly Jeffrey]

kill that dead horse

Re:kill it

[theaveng]

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.

Re:kill it

[risk one]

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.

What planet are these people on?

[apodyopsis]

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.

"legitimate" != "paid for"

[mcgrew]

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.

Kawhazaa?

[Drakkenmensch]

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***!!!"

Target Audiance?

[FrostDust]

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

Well, I already paid for it...

[da5idnetlimit.com]

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...