Merkel makes some good points, but is a little (lotta?) behind the times. Haven't you people heard of proxying, vpn, ftp servers, yada yada? File sharing is continually evolving. There are countless ways to share files that have existed for decades, and the technology exists to make sure the RIAA can't get hold of your ip address or other means to identify you. Somebody'll wrap it all up in an easy, point and click package and walla! File-sharing marches on. The uber geeks don't share files using spyware-infested clients like Kazaa (well sometimes 'cause it's easy). You can still get terrabytes of stuff using mirc, ftp, central file repositories, etc. It just takes more effort. If straight up p2p is shut down, it won't take long before the next step in tech fills the gap. An extreme would be an anonymizing proxy service with a vpn connection. Your ip address is nat'd, the connection encrypted and log files not kept or flushed every hour or so. The question is how much will it cost you? If it's cheaper than a horrendously overpriced cd full of crap, and still easy as a few point and clicks, people may use it. Mp3s are popular because they are cheap, easy, and you have complete control. As long as the Music Industry refuses to change with the times, the techs will always be two steps ahead of them. The more RIAA attempts to legislate change, the greater the risk of consumer backlash. What would happen if a 2 month moratorium ( it will never happen, of course) on cd purchasing was followed? Think they would wake up then? Probably not, they would just include the numbers in their losses to mp3 downloading.
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Merkel makes some good points, but is a little (lotta?) behind the times. Haven't you people heard of proxying, vpn, ftp servers, yada yada? File sharing is continually evolving. There are countless ways to share files that have existed for decades, and the technology exists to make sure the RIAA can't get hold of your ip address or other means to identify you. Somebody'll wrap it all up in an easy, point and click package and walla! File-sharing marches on. The uber geeks don't share files using spyware-infested clients like Kazaa (well sometimes 'cause it's easy). You can still get terrabytes of stuff using mirc, ftp, central file repositories, etc. It just takes more effort. If straight up p2p is shut down, it won't take long before the next step in tech fills the gap. An extreme would be an anonymizing proxy service with a vpn connection. Your ip address is nat'd, the connection encrypted and log files not kept or flushed every hour or so. The question is how much will it cost you? If it's cheaper than a horrendously overpriced cd full of crap, and still easy as a few point and clicks, people may use it. Mp3s are popular because they are cheap, easy, and you have complete control. As long as the Music Industry refuses to change with the times, the techs will always be two steps ahead of them. The more RIAA attempts to legislate change, the greater the risk of consumer backlash. What would happen if a 2 month moratorium ( it will never happen, of course) on cd purchasing was followed? Think they would wake up then? Probably not, they would just include the numbers in their losses to mp3 downloading.