People swapping music files doesn't rank very high on my list of evils of society. Who's next, people that rip the tags off of their mattresses? Beside, the record industry isn't pursuing justice, they're pursuing $$$. Sorry if I don't have a lot of sypathy for their crusade.
Just shows you what a collossal waste of time it was to go after Napster, in fact the success of these 'napsterish' clones is owed most likely to the Napster Lawsuit. Not only that, these next generation ones, like gnutella are going to be virtually impossible to shut down without going after the clients themselves. Plus they'll likely use the Napster learning experience to ensure that it's tougher to go after them legally as well. The big record companies made their position known, took a hard line, and were completely ignored by the average Joe. As a bystander that hasn't used any of these products (I have a -gasp- radio on my desk), I'm watching with a detached amusement. Now if we could just find a way to stick it to Ticketmaster....
I use the MSN as a start page, but if they're going to start blocking other browsers (purposely), I guess I'll have to find another page. It's a good strategy, I suppose, make it inconvenient to use competitive tools and the vast majority of the people will ignorantly follow along. But I'll use the only means at my disposal to register my discontent, I'll go stare at someone else's growing advertisement banners.
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People swapping music files doesn't rank very high on my list of evils of society. Who's next, people that rip the tags off of their mattresses? Beside, the record industry isn't pursuing justice, they're pursuing $$$. Sorry if I don't have a lot of sypathy for their crusade.
Just shows you what a collossal waste of time it was to go after Napster, in fact the success of these 'napsterish' clones is owed most likely to the Napster Lawsuit. Not only that, these next generation ones, like gnutella are going to be virtually impossible to shut down without going after the clients themselves. Plus they'll likely use the Napster learning experience to ensure that it's tougher to go after them legally as well. The big record companies made their position known, took a hard line, and were completely ignored by the average Joe. As a bystander that hasn't used any of these products (I have a -gasp- radio on my desk), I'm watching with a detached amusement. Now if we could just find a way to stick it to Ticketmaster....
I use the MSN as a start page, but if they're going to start blocking other browsers (purposely), I guess I'll have to find another page. It's a good strategy, I suppose, make it inconvenient to use competitive tools and the vast majority of the people will ignorantly follow along. But I'll use the only means at my disposal to register my discontent, I'll go stare at someone else's growing advertisement banners.