Cool little program
- Thread starter Emeric
- Start date
hixmix
Halibut, North Dakota
Did anyone see Napster.com in the news today?
It has become so popular that several colleges have banned its use because it's clogging up their computer networks.
The music industry is nervous too. The RIAA has filed a lawsuit against Napster.com.
Has anyone used this program? Care to share your thoughts on it?
It has become so popular that several colleges have banned its use because it's clogging up their computer networks.
The music industry is nervous too. The RIAA has filed a lawsuit against Napster.com.
Has anyone used this program? Care to share your thoughts on it?
I use it, it's great. Can find a lot of MP3 files fast. I'm mainly after the obscure ones though.
It is certainly a copywrite violation. What can you do? I still buy cd's but only ones I have to have. CD's are way too expensive. Overpriced crap. Does it cost $16(CAN) to pay all involved within reason? (obviously based on sales, but so what.. shitty product deserves little sales). Thank someone for the internet. It's given people with ambition and often real talent the opportunity to at the very least, share their music.
That's a bit off tangent. Napster is 99.9% ommercially available material, i.e. current popular.
I'm sure there upset. Good.
It is certainly a copywrite violation. What can you do? I still buy cd's but only ones I have to have. CD's are way too expensive. Overpriced crap. Does it cost $16(CAN) to pay all involved within reason? (obviously based on sales, but so what.. shitty product deserves little sales). Thank someone for the internet. It's given people with ambition and often real talent the opportunity to at the very least, share their music.
That's a bit off tangent. Napster is 99.9% ommercially available material, i.e. current popular.
I'm sure there upset. Good.
Dobro,
All depends on traffic. I don't find it downloads any faster or slower. But as you said, it finds mp3's faster. Which is very difficult to do with obscure songs.
If people leaching mp3's off your machine is a concern to you, than I suppose security could be an issue. I think there is an option to turn this off, but I don't know.
All depends on traffic. I don't find it downloads any faster or slower. But as you said, it finds mp3's faster. Which is very difficult to do with obscure songs.
If people leaching mp3's off your machine is a concern to you, than I suppose security could be an issue. I think there is an option to turn this off, but I don't know.
hixmix
Halibut, North Dakota
Yeah, the prices are so high because most of the profit on CD's goes to the shareholders and executives of huge corporations that own ISP's, print newspapers and magazines, produce expensive but awful movies, manufacture junky consumer goods in sweatshops in Asia, distill liquor, own television and radio networks. And then there are all the middle men. And then...... then......the musician. Unless you are one of a handful of very powerful musical acts, you'll see very little of that profit from your CD.
The music industry is so nervous about the internet and download programs because because they're losing control of distribution to the artists themselves. In the long run MP3, Napster, et al will be beneficial to the artist.
[This message has been edited by hixmix (edited 02-29-2000).]
The music industry is so nervous about the internet and download programs because because they're losing control of distribution to the artists themselves. In the long run MP3, Napster, et al will be beneficial to the artist.
[This message has been edited by hixmix (edited 02-29-2000).]
Jon X
New member
You can turn off the share section of Napster so no one can see or download files from your computer while you are using it. I always shut it down when I am done downloading just in case, as it puts an icon in the system tray and who knows what it might be doing in the background after that stuff about RealJukebox was discovered.
About piracy and the RIAA losing money, here's a quote from a news story I read online yesterday. I have no idea if the statistics are completely correct:
"...the RIAA reports that the music industry - especially non-copy-protected CD's - is booming. Not only did the record industry sell 10.8% more CD's than last year, they raised their income on those disks by 12.3% - so not only are you buying more music, but you're paying more for each disk you buy. Income from CD's alone increased by 1.4 billion dollars last year. So where's the crippling damage from evil music pirates? If they're suffering so badly, why does their profit chart look like Microsoft's?"
Definitely interesting if true.
[This message has been edited by Jon X (edited 02-29-2000).]
About piracy and the RIAA losing money, here's a quote from a news story I read online yesterday. I have no idea if the statistics are completely correct:
"...the RIAA reports that the music industry - especially non-copy-protected CD's - is booming. Not only did the record industry sell 10.8% more CD's than last year, they raised their income on those disks by 12.3% - so not only are you buying more music, but you're paying more for each disk you buy. Income from CD's alone increased by 1.4 billion dollars last year. So where's the crippling damage from evil music pirates? If they're suffering so badly, why does their profit chart look like Microsoft's?"
Definitely interesting if true.
[This message has been edited by Jon X (edited 02-29-2000).]
dobro
Well-known member
I know, I know - and I've got little sympathy for the big recording companies. But if I copy a CD for a friend, he/she won't go out and buy a commerical copy, right? So nothing goes to the artist, who deserves to be supported. So what's the way around it? Every time you copy an entire CD, you send $2 to the artist?
dobro
Well-known member
Yeah, but there's something else - most artists don't record (equip, engineer, master and market) their own material - they rely on their record company for that. So they (and we) need the big (and not so big) labels to get the stuff out in the first place - they have their uses, and they deserve monetary support, too.
hixmix
Halibut, North Dakota
Right. But it's never good for an artist to become complacent and accept the status quo. He/she should always be giving the lawyers, the MBA's and all the other "suits" in the music food chain a reason to be looking over their shoulder.
[This message has been edited by hixmix (edited 03-06-2000).]
[This message has been edited by hixmix (edited 03-06-2000).]
dobro
Well-known member
And then there's us down here in hr.com. I like to think of us as kind of the small mammals in the age of the dinosaurs (big label = T Rex) - getting on with a more flexible species while the big guys are at the end of their particular evolutionary trick. And yet, when you come to think of it, the same CD-ripping that rips the big guys is gonna rip you when you start getting your CDs out there. If your music's worth listening to, it's worth copying for free using the same technology you used to burn the CD in the first place. I don't think we're in this for the money, except for those of us who fund their studios by renting the facility, and I don't think we've got anybody looking over their shoulders. 
Make the best music you can, and get it on the CD. That's the kick.
Make the best music you can, and get it on the CD. That's the kick.
drstawl
Banned
I joined up and checked them out and it was kind of creepy. I checked out a George Thoroughly Bad tune and it felt like I had stumbled upon someone else's collection of stolen CDs. As to security. It didn't seem that they were noodling around on my HD while it was running since I haven't posted anything on my HD as "public" Napster material. But it would take some much more anal tools than I've got to really rule this out. And what's up with that icon? Is that supposed to be a cat burglar? It's one thing for the owner of a particular recorded & published tune to offer it up for download at some lower bit rate. Quite another to do this without permission.
gaffa
Recalcitrant Member
Regarding security, napster is actually an HTTP (or is it FTP?) server, similar to a normal web-server. To the best of my knowledge, it's pretty secure, but because it is a 'server', someone, somewhere, will work out how to hack it and gain access to the computers running it.
I don't know if it affects anybody in the US, but a certain cable company in Australia were disconnecting users who were running Napster 'cos they were deemed to be running 'illegal' servers or something like that.
If you want to see just how secure your machine is when connected to the net, go to http://www.grc.com and run the ShieldsUp test. It can be very enlightening...
- gaffa
I don't know if it affects anybody in the US, but a certain cable company in Australia were disconnecting users who were running Napster 'cos they were deemed to be running 'illegal' servers or something like that.
If you want to see just how secure your machine is when connected to the net, go to http://www.grc.com and run the ShieldsUp test. It can be very enlightening...
- gaffa
Nilbog
hello
I've been using napster for a while and I love it. Basically, your getting those illegal files from other people, not from napster. Napster is just a doorway, and doesnt promote anything that people give to eachother. That's how they can get away with it. It's like the flea market, sort of. People can bring and sell their stolen sony boom boxes, but the flea market itslef is not responsible for whatever you sell.
-Nilbog
-Nilbog
TAE
All you have is now
The New buzzword for "sharing" ripped CD's is
"Cross Pollination" .I think that if you look at Video tapes and what happened there you can see the end result in this lawsuit.There is no way around stopping us from sharing what someone has given us or we paid for , as long as there is no monetary gain. Napster is not making money "selling" these ripped CD's all they are is a "portal" that connects the general public together to "share" what somebody somewhere paid for "for personal use"...thus cross pollination, sharing our musical genes. There is a site where you can watch and or participate in this lawsuit with Napster. This is a big decision in regards to the future of MP3.
I'm all forthe performing artist, songwriters, and recoding engineers making money from their efforts. The problem with the distribution of their media is too many fingers in the pie e.g. record companies,distributors, and music stores. Back in the olden days these middle men were a neccessary evil. With todays technology as proven right here at HR.com we don't need them. If everbody paid $2 for each album they downloaded to the people that deserve compensation, the songwriters,artist and engineers would make a hell of lot more than they do now. How that is done is another story but there are ways to do it. here's the link to the ongoing battle. http://napster.com/groundzero/
"Cross Pollination" .I think that if you look at Video tapes and what happened there you can see the end result in this lawsuit.There is no way around stopping us from sharing what someone has given us or we paid for , as long as there is no monetary gain. Napster is not making money "selling" these ripped CD's all they are is a "portal" that connects the general public together to "share" what somebody somewhere paid for "for personal use"...thus cross pollination, sharing our musical genes. There is a site where you can watch and or participate in this lawsuit with Napster. This is a big decision in regards to the future of MP3.
I'm all forthe performing artist, songwriters, and recoding engineers making money from their efforts. The problem with the distribution of their media is too many fingers in the pie e.g. record companies,distributors, and music stores. Back in the olden days these middle men were a neccessary evil. With todays technology as proven right here at HR.com we don't need them. If everbody paid $2 for each album they downloaded to the people that deserve compensation, the songwriters,artist and engineers would make a hell of lot more than they do now. How that is done is another story but there are ways to do it. here's the link to the ongoing battle. http://napster.com/groundzero/