Call me a non-realist in a state of bliss, but I just don't see something like that happening. If not just because the world of technology is a lot different now then it was a decade ago when a different Bush was president, then most certainly because technology as a whole is embedded in our culture, our lifestyle, and our commerce. ________
Napster winning a stay on the injunction does nothing aside from free up a couple of songs from being remotely queued. Oh, and allowing us to use it a little longer.;)
Seriously, though, the only way anything will come of this is if we can assist the technically and legally challenged to understand that certain things have changed in the past couple years. When the injunction was announced I saw a myriad of brilliant ideas promoting thinking, acting, & changing. A bunch of geeks giddy over the stay isn't going to change a blasted thing. We still need to do something.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy Napster's still running...I just don't think that now is the time to slip into complacency. ___________
Ever have a machine lacking a DVD-ROM? One on which you couldn't watch DVDs? Maybe a laptop without such a drive, and you wanted to watch a movie on the road. Or at work on your lunch break. The uses for such a delivery method are countless.
Mind you, that is aside from the whole piracy bit.;-)
I disagree. I would say that the reason Napster was so widely accepted as opposed to FTP or gnutella is it's ease of use. I was one of the first ones to jump on the Napster-bandwagon (no pun intended), and it came as a shock to me when 6 months later I was hearing and talking with a few of my friends who are technically un-savvy through and through. They were talking about using Napster and how large their MP3 collection had grown in a relatively short amount of time. These people barely knew what the difference between a cold and warm reboot is.
Yes, the reason Napster spread like wildfire (sic) was because everyone could use it. Remember MP3 achives on FTP sites and search engines existed long before Napster was born. However, you didn't see the RIAA getting ancy about several thousand netizens downloading and uploading digitized tunes via those portals. When upwards of 1,000,000 users are transferring copyrighted material, it is a horse of a different color.
See, I like Limp Bizkit lead singer Fred Durst's view on the matter. Looks like Napster is underwriting the cost of a free Limp Bizkit concert tour of the U.S. The article on Yahoo! is here.
In the article, Durst is quoted saying, "`I would think the only people worried about that are people that are really worried about their bank accounts." He proceeded to say that it is a great way for fans and potential listeners to taste an album before buying it.
Okay, I'll play devil's advocate here for a minute...
What if AOL released a Linux client? Would you stop ranting and suddenly start raving about this genial corporation that is jumping on the bandwagon?
Is it simply an issue of AOL being sour grapes simply because they're out of our reach as Linux users? Sheesh. AOL hardly holds a monopoly on the Internet--they are simply extremely popular among newbies and illiterates. Is that all bad? Is it bad that they are providing their own content? Not entirely. If they start blocking their members from viewing anything on the Web aside from exclusive AOL/Time-Warner content, then we can start worrying. Right now, tho, I think the suits understand that proprietary content and connection methods equate to unhappy users which ultimately results in the absence of users.
Went to Circuit City yesterday, and just the one location has 25 i-openers on back order. I spoke with the salesperson there, and as far as I could tell they are going to continue to be sold at CC without requiring the customer to commit to the monthly internet access plan.
Slashdot Mirror
Call me a non-realist in a state of bliss, but I just don't see something like that happening. If not just because the world of technology is a lot different now then it was a decade ago when a different Bush was president, then most certainly because technology as a whole is embedded in our culture, our lifestyle, and our commerce.
________
Napster winning a stay on the injunction does nothing aside from free up a couple of songs from being remotely queued. Oh, and allowing us to use it a little longer. ;)
Seriously, though, the only way anything will come of this is if we can assist the technically and legally challenged to understand that certain things have changed in the past couple years. When the injunction was announced I saw a myriad of brilliant ideas promoting thinking, acting, & changing. A bunch of geeks giddy over the stay isn't going to change a blasted thing. We still need to do something.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy Napster's still running...I just don't think that now is the time to slip into complacency.
___________
There is actually an AIM client written in Tcl/Tk and based on the Tik release from America Online. It runs on any system that supports Tcl/Tk.
MiniTik AOL Instant Messenger Client
___________
Ever have a machine lacking a DVD-ROM? One on which you couldn't watch DVDs? Maybe a laptop without such a drive, and you wanted to watch a movie on the road. Or at work on your lunch break. The uses for such a delivery method are countless.
;-)
Mind you, that is aside from the whole piracy bit.
------------------
I disagree. I would say that the reason Napster was so widely accepted as opposed to FTP or gnutella is it's ease of use. I was one of the first ones to jump on the Napster-bandwagon (no pun intended), and it came as a shock to me when 6 months later I was hearing and talking with a few of my friends who are technically un-savvy through and through. They were talking about using Napster and how large their MP3 collection had grown in a relatively short amount of time. These people barely knew what the difference between a cold and warm reboot is.
Yes, the reason Napster spread like wildfire (sic) was because every one could use it. Remember MP3 achives on FTP sites and search engines existed long before Napster was born. However, you didn't see the RIAA getting ancy about several thousand netizens downloading and uploading digitized tunes via those portals. When upwards of 1,000,000 users are transferring copyrighted material, it is a horse of a different color.
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No, untrue. I own the Tarzan DVD, and on my APEX I'm able to bypass the trailers and get to the main menu.
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See, I like Limp Bizkit lead singer Fred Durst's view on the matter. Looks like Napster is underwriting the cost of a free Limp Bizkit concert tour of the U.S. The article on Yahoo! is here.
In the article, Durst is quoted saying, "`I would think the only people worried about that are people that are really worried about their bank accounts." He proceeded to say that it is a great way for fans and potential listeners to taste an album before buying it.
Well said, master Fred!
------------------
Okay, I'll play devil's advocate here for a minute...
/root]# man girls
What if AOL released a Linux client? Would you stop ranting and suddenly start raving about this genial corporation that is jumping on the bandwagon?
Is it simply an issue of AOL being sour grapes simply because they're out of our reach as Linux users? Sheesh. AOL hardly holds a monopoly on the Internet--they are simply extremely popular among newbies and illiterates. Is that all bad? Is it bad that they are providing their own content? Not entirely. If they start blocking their members from viewing anything on the Web aside from exclusive AOL/Time-Warner content, then we can start worrying. Right now, tho, I think the suits understand that proprietary content and connection methods equate to unhappy users which ultimately results in the absence of users.
I see an AOL Linux client within the next year.
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[root@jupiter
Just installed it (using it to post right now) on Win98. Very smooth, a little choppy when resizing, but super super fast.
/root]# man girls
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[root@jupiter
Went to Circuit City yesterday, and just the one location has 25 i-openers on back order. I spoke with the salesperson there, and as far as I could tell they are going to continue to be sold at CC without requiring the customer to commit to the monthly internet access plan.