What is the difference between listening to the radio, and downloading MP3's from napster, audiogalaxy, or mp3-'whatever'.com (they change all the time). You get to choose the music and no-one advertises on your MP3 player. And those of you who whine that the artists don't get their share of the money for thier work, can stick your foot in your mouth because most of the money recieved for CD's and tapes are miniscule. The RECORD COMPANY gets most of the money! NOT THE ARTISTS. Most big rich artists get rich from merchandise. T-shirts, posters, action figures, patches, stickers, •••• rings (see 'napster bad' from joecartoon), and anything else you can think of.

When you download MP3's from wherever you do, you aren't stealing from your favorite band, you are stealing from the assenine bastards (record companies) who steal from your favorite band. Why don't record companies simply set up thier own sites for MP3's, and sell advertising space? that would be rather profitable. Advertising space seen by millions of people worldwide would sell rather well would it not? MP3's will be around regardless of laws, regulations, any of the like. Free music will be available. Why don't the music conglomorates simply cut in on the action?

Napster is different because its only purpose, in the eyes of the RIAA, is to assist people to steal music and distribute it to others. They can't track you if you tape a song off the radio, but they *can* track you on Napster, since they keep a database of every user, their email address, and what songs they have on their hard drive. Because of the way copyright law is at the moment, SHARING SONGS ON NAPSTER IS ILLEGAL, whether or not it makes any sense.

Me, I'm of two minds about the issue. On one hand, it's obviously illegal. On the other, I wouldn't really care if someone downloaded my music for free or not, as long as they heard it. On a third, this peer-to-peer networking stuff is probably going to revolutionize the Net. Until a decision is rendered, I'm going to keep using it, because there's too much anime music out there that I don't have yet.

An interesting point....

When audio cassettes were first introduced, the record companies fought to ban those because they were afraid that people would no longer go out and buy albums when they can tape the songs off the radio. This evil new technology would bring about the downfall of the music industry.

When VCRs were first introduced, the movie industry fought against them because they were afraid that people wouldn't go see movies in the theater when they could simply tape the movie off the TV. This evil new technology would bring about the downfall of the Movie industry.

These are the same arguments that the music industry is giving about Napster today. The only major difference is the name of the new, evil technology.

Jason: That, extended out a bit, would make a GREAT im-ur article!

That *was* an article, although I can't recall what magazine it was in. I suspect Jason read it as well?
Napster is going to start charging for their service, which I think is a credit to the recording industry for realizing that they'll never beat Napster and all of its clones. But here's another issue: If Napster wants me to send them some money I'm going to tell them where they can go to look for it. After all, I have other programs that will still allow me to download MP3s without having to pay a price for them! So how about everyone else out there? Are you going to pay for MP3s through Napster or are you going to just go out and find a different program to use for downloading them?

It depends on what the fee will be. I've always said I'll pay a fee as long as it's reasonable, because I think Napster is a kick-ass service. However, I've yet to hear what the fee will be or when it will be implemented, so we'll see.

(Just found the board)

Personally, I don't think Mp3s are that big a deal; I only download Mp3s if I can't a particular song in a music store or an import catalog. Besides, a lot of Mp3s you can find for free at other sites! (Well, those are mostly Mp3s from soundtracks, but still....)

Matthew: You have till June. Start hoarding songs now!

Oh, for the love of...

Brian, read that again. I said I'd be happy to pay a reasonable fee. Which means that there's no reason why I should stop using the service after the fee is implemented.

A dutch court dropped the copyright case against KaZaA! Interestingly they used the 1984 betamax ruling of the US Supreme Court for the defense which said manufacturers of video recorders are not liable if consumers use their products to abuse copyrights.
Read here!

KaZaA and Napster are just easier versions of my local library. I have a CD-RW and can copy CD's I get from the public library. To be consistent the record labels should be sueing libraries. (Note to lawyers, I know their addresses for the subpeonas.)

Also, I have a computer. I don't need delivery system. I do not want to by a hand-crank for my car for it has a starter and I would resent GM making me buy it. I do not need a CD (just the music) for my computer has a CD-RW and I resent BMG making me buy one.

Beware of sites like Kazaa and AudioGalaxy that require the use of spyware. They say it's to enhance your websurfing habits and to configure a personal profile for you to make it easier to find the kind of music you like. Well, that's total BS, cuz they're really only keeping track of your surfing habits, which is why it's called spyware. To learn more about it you can do a search on any search engine or check out the various music sharing sites at CNET.com, which has a story called How spyware might help us share files (what a scary, horrible, ironic thought!).

The spyware in Audiogalaxy can be easily removed with Ad-Aware. Kazaa is a little bit trickier. After removing the spyware you need to install a dummy DLL. From what I've heard it works fine.

There is now a "Kazaa Lite", basically a Kazaa client without spyware, adware, bitrate limit... Get it here.

Isn't it ironic that I personally don't use all those MP3 related thingies?

Isn't it funny: Price fixing since 1996 caused CD sales slowdown. Yeah, the RIAA...

Are the P2P users also criminals?

I know that downloading songs and 'mpeg's from these networks are assumed to be illegal, and that they are sueing these p2p networks like napster; but what legal action can be taken against the individuals who have downloaded and shared the songs.

Are these individuals also criminals because they have "stolen" songs and videos on their PCs? What type of criminal punishment could be handed down in the courts? Judging on the shear number of users who already have so called "stolen" songs on their computers, how many would go to prison or would it be a fine of some sort?

I thought the prisons were over-crowded as it was. Although fines would no doubt help with the budget crunches.

Arr Matey,

The RIAA will get IP address of those it downloads a song from. So ye swabs ye be setting up to not upload and shiver me timbers. Avast there be a problem with no one uploading anything but ye can find a way to wriggle out of the noose lad. Arrr.