Bit Torrent SHUT DOWN !?!?!?!?!

[LennonCook]

Originally posted by Rikard T'Aranaxz: i downloaded a lot of music from bands i never knew and i do buy the cds then i like the music.

But, like I said before, isn't it the band's responsibility to have their music heard? By downloading illegal songs and then buying the CDs, you are still giving the musicians profit, which means that their current attitude is 'working'. This can have the adverse effect of encouraging them to ignore the internet (and the freedom of distribution that it allows) and even condone it as detriment to them. T
hose people who illegally download music and then don't buy the CDs also help this attitude. Some musicians (or, more specifically, the record labels) seem to think that so long as their music is up for download, they won't profit from it. The fact that, by and large, this is exactly what is happening can't help the situation much.
What we need is a way to encourage bands to put some music up for free download, and then charge for the rest, allowing it either on purchased MP3, or on CD (and to also sell the freely downloadable albums on CD for people with less bandwidth). The way to encourage this, in my opinion, is not to download illegal music, but rather to download the legal music, and buy other music from those same bands. This gives more profit to the bands who do put sampler music up for download, while reducing the profit of those who don't. Which will have the obvious effect of making the musicians (and record labels) realise that the internet can be a useful tool for them, rather than something that is constantly working against them.

But, as I have said before in this thread, Kazaa and iMesh are not good tools for this, and this will likely be their downfall. Since there is no quality control on them, there is no way for anyone to make sure it is only legal things being downloaded, and also that it is the right file (instead of a "warped" version of the song, a different song, or a {trojan|virus|spyware|all three} dropper). The way BitTorrent works, however, is quite different (see WikiPedia), and allows for full quality control by the server, PLUS client-side validation by MD5 sum. It also makes it harder for someone to distribute illegal files on it, since one can't 'search' Bittorrent, but rather would need to search the web for a .torrent. This makes it more vulnerable to legal issues (since authorities can find a webserver, while they can't find a Kazaa user who is shielded with anonymity), and it makes it less possible for people to seed an illegal file in the first place (quickly, hands up: who here has access to a throwaway webserver that can be a dedicated BitTorrent tracker?). This also virutally elliminates the fuzzy line between what is legal and what is not. At the very least, it should take that particular issue back a few years, to "can I copy this CD and give it to my friend?" - very few people would swap copyrighted music except with people they know, rather than with 20 people who they have never known existed before, and will probably forget in 2 minutes time.

EDIT: Typo

[ 12-27-2004, 10:03 PM: Message edited by: LennonCook ]

[Rikard T'Aranaxz]

http://www.kasabian.co.uk/album/

free to listen.
it got me to buy the cd.

i never said the mp3's i download to test are illegal [img]tongue.gif[/img] however you do haev to realise that a lot of bands dont have the money to promote their music, even on the internet.

[theGrimm]

I suspect a new band is all for filesharing when they are looking for cheap marketing. But their opinion will change a few years down the line when they made nothing off their first official release because all the songs where downloaded illegally.

Unfortunately, the fact that a CD is expensive is not a justifiable reason for me to steal it. If music companies or bands sold unaffordable products, economic reality will change their "tune".

I mean, a Ferrari is expensive, and I wouldn't pay for one, but that doesn't justify my stealing one.

[philip]

What's too expensive? If I count on how many hours I've listened to an album I can say that none of my albums was too expensive since I enjoyed them a lot.

[Rikard T'Aranaxz]

theGrimm i used to have a site with a *huge* list of well established artists who all supported the free distribution of their own music. however i lost the url to that site so i cant prove it which makes this statement kind of dull...

[RoSs_bg2_rox]

Grimm, put it in context though. If there was a Ferrari sitting right infront of you, with the keys in it, the doors open and a welcome note lying inside, would you take it?

[Intrepid]

I would take the car

[Zuvio]

Originally posted by Vaskez: ..... What may slow down file sharing in the future is the introduction of monthly download limits by ISPs. ......

Please don't ever say scary stuff like this again. Back in the dark ages my ISP used a limit for downloading and every MB I went over it, it would cost me. Going over your limit included, offcourse, simple browsing, online-gaming, getting handy files to tinker with your Windows, demo's for games, free mp3, you name it. Wanna download service pack 2? Well, hopefully for you, you can without pulling out your wallet. Seriously, back in those days, there wasn't a whole lot you could get illegally and that which you COULD get, wasn't possible because of turtle-downstream. Yet somehow my monthly was always 150-200% of my normal subscription price, which hurt alot.

Honestly, DL/UL limits are Hell-ish....

P.S. and yes, I would also definitely take the car

[ 12-31-2004, 05:44 AM: Message edited by: Zuvio ]

[Hivetyrant]

Hmmmm, sorry to resurect this thread, but ANOTHER Bittorrent site was shut down, and yes it was Lokitorrent which was considered the top ranking bittorrent site

[LennonCook]

Good.