Easy MP3 Distribution

capncook writes "There is a cool new tool out there called Napster that allows anyone to become a publicly accessible FTP site- tapping in to that huge resource of personal mp3 collections that everyone has, but have not been able to share. It's still in beta, but the bugs are mostly harmless, and it certainly does the job- although no Linux version is yet available. RIAA should be scared out of their minds because users are not logged on permanently, so it's hard to track them down to take legal action. "

Comments

For those that don't know but are afraid to ask:

[Imperator]

Napster is a Win32 program (with a text-based Linux beta version that also sorta works) with a poor GUI. It allows you to share your MP3s with all other Napster users and vice versa. You tell Napster how fast your connection is; many people abuse the system by claiming to have a 14.4 so that no one ties up their bandwidth as they download. Napster catalogs your MP3s (those in a directory tree you specify, anyway) and reads their ID3 tags to get searchable information about them. It (I'm guessing here) sends it to the server. You can then search for what you want and download it. Napster supports queued, paused, and resumed downloads, but because of the peer-to-peer nature of the file transfers, you can't be guaranteed that you'll find the same person again. There's also an IRC-like chat feature, which I haven't looked at very much. A disclaimer when you login warns you that they can't take responsibility for any of the content, but very little of it is legal.

Executive summary: if you have a Win32 box, install it and see how easy it is to get (RIAA/lawyer-owned) MP3s. (If you're into that sort of thing, you'll probably like Napster.) If you don't, look at their site and get a better idea of what it does.

Napster, et al.

[davidu]

Ok, here is the low down:

First: the RIAA has already taken legal action against Napster. They story is here.

Second: Another program by the folks who make CuteFTP called CuteMX is out. It seems however, that GlobalSCAPE the company that makes it, has removed it from their servers. Maybe they are scared of what is happening to Napster.

I am sure I am gonna get in trouble for this, but I have a version of the Win 95/98 CuteMX exe here. I would appreciate it if people would mirror it quickly, so not to saturate the cable modem...thanks
-Davidu

napster is overrated imho

[Ater]

First of all, I may be redundant, but I would like to emphasize the napster has been here for quite some time, there is a Linux port of napster, and the RIAA already has sued napster, as shown in this article.

Now that I have said that, I still have to wonder why napster is getting so much press as the next big mp3 thing. I have used it many times, and occasionally still do, and I find it to be nothing more than a glorified http search. Here are listed some the biggest flaws I found in napster. Note: I don't want to start a flame war, I honestly want to know why napster is such a big deal considering its vast problems.

1. Quality of mp3's - Napster is cool in that it lets you specify bitrate, but to be honest, that doesnt mean much at all. Try searching for a popular band, say Nirvana at "atleast" 128... you'll find 100's, but then try searching at "at least" 192, you'll find like 3 at most. Its search engine is a little bit better, but it doesnt change the fact that most of napster's content is regurgiated ratio ftp stuff, and the rare high quality songs are just renamed mp3 group releases (apc,bkf,rns,ksi,etc...) that are much quicker to get on irc. It's cool for the people that just want to find a quick song regardless of quality, but really no use for anyone who is knowledgeable about mp3.

2. Server Connections - I have frequent problems getting on the server, I find large amounts of lag when trying to join the channels, and I noticed something else odd. Whenever I leech from a "hot list" site of mine that is online, and I reconnect to the server, the hot list site is no longer to be found online. This has prevented me from getting a lot of complete mp3's/albums.

3. Downloads - Maybe it's just me, but downloading seems a lot slower running through napster's servers. Same goes with viewing lists. If it's not the servers fault, it could be the clogged upload on the other box (see point 4), but I'm on dsl and a rarely get >isdn speeds even when downloading from a t3. Also, why isn't there a way to save queues in case a user logs off in middownload... that would save me lots of time, and why it isn't in is beyond me.

4. Upload control - Herein lies the huge problem. Napster is about sharing, and I'm cool with that, but it gives you NO control over outcoming file transfers. Whats wrong with letting someone limit the amount of downloading users on their box? Whats wrong with killing a user in middownload to save bandwidth? It can really add up on high speed, high content boxes which tend to be targeted en masse for downloads. I can see why colleges are cracking down on napster and blocking it... napster refuses to allow upload limits, the resnet box uploads vast amounts of mp3's, and the college network will obviously experience some drop in speed as this adds up. It's the person's own computer and files... they should have the right to control access to it. I usually put my files in a dummy directory to avoid being leeched to a halt while downloading because of napster. Which brings to me another point... that devious close scheme... if you click the "X" icon to exit, napster only minimizes. For someone inexperienced, this leaves their box continuing to upload files without the user's knowledge. Yet another reason colleges such as UIUC would ban napster... I bet students "closed" napster and it u/led and consumed lots of bandwidth without the student being able to tell it was only minimized. Sure I want to encourage sharing, but deception and force is NOT the way to do it. I trust that users would rather share their files if given some control than hide their archives to avoid napster's ridiculous "sharing enforcement" scheme.

I'm not totally dissing on napster, because I have found some cool stuff there. But, it still has a long way to go from the buggy program it is now. Maybe when some bugs are fixed, people will be closer to their little online cyber-music community. But right now, napster seems more like hype and hoopla, and private ftp sites and irc will remain my methods of choice for getting mp3's