kazaa? Morhpeous? e-mule?...

[Yorick]

To those of you who are sharing music, downloading mp3s without paying or without the artists permission, you are STEALING! You are depriving the creators of income necessary to keep producing music.

You can attempt to justify it any way you like but pure and simple it is theft.

[Vaskez]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: Actually, I'm not very up on it at all, Willow. What exactly do you mean by p2p software? Software that lets one CPU view another. Sorry .... I really am not trolling, but am uninformed. Now, if you are telling me that Morpheus exists for some reason other than letting people swap copyrighted or licensed material or hacks for such material, I must say I am dubious. Which is why they're coming under fire from the lawyers.

Actually there are a LOT of legitimate uses.

1)You can download episodes of TV programs you missed - others might record it on video but what if you don't have a video recorder?

2)You can get patches and program upgrades (which are free) much more quickly as stated - dodge fileplanet queues etc.

3)Modding communities can use it to distribute material that they produced for games. Remember the IE games as well as games like Unreal Tournament and Half Life have had HUGE modding communities distributing free add-ons.

4)Distributing the Linux OS and programs for it which are all free under the GNU public license.

5)Distributing home videos and self-recorded material to others.

Should I go on?

Now the above reasons are why I sometimes use P2P. If I want music I buy the CD version which is a full album and much higher quality than MP3.

[ 05-07-2003, 11:51 AM: Message edited by: Vaskez ]

[WillowIX]

Originally posted by Yorick: To those of you who are sharing music, downloading mp3s without paying or without the artists permission, you are STEALING! You are depriving the creators of income necessary to keep producing music. You can attempt to justify it any way you like but pure and simple it is theft.

Now this I can agree with. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[slicer15]

Totally off topic, but could someone post a link to a spyware killer? Any help appreciated.

[andrewas]

http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/
http://security.kolla.de/

Run them both, neither will do a 100% job on its own but the combination is very effective.

[Luvian]

It's illegal to discuss piracy, but it's not illegal to talk about p2p programs as far as I am concerned.

Not everything on those is illegal. For those that are not aware, you connect to other computers to download things from them, and not only mp3s.

Kazaa, Morpheus,... allow you to share and download any kind of files. Programs, movies, documents,...

Some people use it to distributes fanart or story they make, their flash animation, their custom bg2 portraits, gamemaking resources, Home made programs, amateur songs, anything.

Some companies even pay Kazaa for them to put their Demo and even complete games for download. Some are free, some are not. They last time I looked, they were selling Worm Armageddon for 2$ us on Kazaa, and yes, it's legal. They also sell music and documents.

So, yes, p2p can be used for piracy, as the internet can be, but it can also be used to share things, like the internet.

Here is a good advice that apply to anything. It's always a good idea to get informations on something before criticizing it.

So as far as I am concerned, this thread does not breach the COC as long as nobody talk about piracy. Talk about your favorite program, but don't tell us how to get illegal files.

Another mod might disagree and lock this thread, thought. Enjoy it while it last.

[ 05-07-2003, 05:10 PM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

[slicer15]

Originally posted by andrewas: http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/ http://security.kolla.de/ Run them both, neither will do a 100% job on its own but the combination is very effective.

Thank you very much!

[norompanlasolas]

i use kazaalite seldom because it has too much bogus files and viruses. plus, its not really that useful for getting files which are not of public domain. i find edonkey waaay better (overnet is another possibility) for finding custom made computer programs (note: shareware) or old unreleased tv shows or movies. i don't download anything mainstream enough (like new movies or games) and there are loads of people like me, thats why direct connection programs like the donkey are invaluable and certainly not illegal.

[Bungleau]

P2P is peer-to-peer, a means of allowing one computer to communicate with another to exchange files. By itself, it's no more illegal than a hammer or a saw is.

When properly used, all of those tools benefit the parties involved.

Use a hammer to break a window, however, and you may be approaching illegal activity. Depends on whose window it is [img]smile.gif[/img] Use P2P software to share software that is not licensed to be shared that way, and you may also be approaching illegal activity.

It's not the tool that's a problem; it's the use of the tool.

[FelixJaeger]

Erm you guys seem to do a hell of a lot of flaming to anyone who uses these things.
Sure it would be good if i had the money of a person with a full time job but i have to go to school, if i want to listen to some music i can be entitled to do it, if i choose to, and not be called a thief.
I myself only use programs like this if i am recommended a band and do not want to rush out and buy their album, hell ill rush out and buy their album if i like them, but why should i waste money if i dont like them?
Hmmn maybe its because ive had a crap day or maybe its because i shouldnt be called a thief that im saying this but if you want me to stop using KaZaA is it ok with you if i take up stealing cars to make up for all the money i have to waste buying the CD's of any bands my friends recommend to me? Sounds fair, doesn't it.
Felix