The fact that they were trying to get this written into a pending antiterrorism bill is disturbing and should lead us all to wonder what else is pending in this bill. The replies on the message board are priceless, with many people and hackers challenging them to do this and threats to the online subscription services they plan to start.
Those non-Napster alternatives for mp3's are really pretty painful to use anyway. Napster really hit the nail on the head and solved the problem beautifully.
But now I notice people just listing their catalogs on web pages, and you send them an email asking for the ones you want and they mail them back. I'm talking thousands and thousands of these "song lists".
Google and the other search engines help you find the tunes, and like Napster, you're never sure about what you're going to get or the quality, but mp3's are still being traded openly this way.
However, I did read how the RIAA also wants to be able to scan everybody's hard-drive from the Internet whenever they want, looking for anything that *might* be copyrighted and delete it right off your computer, without your knowledge. Yes, they really did propose this to Congress and to Microsoft and also the hard-drive manufacturers, who they want to install firmware that prevents ANY mp3 content from being stored, just in case it might be something they own.
The real battle is not over mp3's but rather movies (or more precisely DVDs), which the entire entertainment industry is rapidly converting over to, because it's a lot (and I mean a lot) cheaper than the traditional analog media to make and distribute.
It's so much better that at least one major Studio has been flying some guys all over the USA to install theater-size DVD projectors practically for free! If the plan succeeds, then nearly all major motion pictures in USA theaters will be shown from these giant DVD platters, which eventually will be recorded directly from satellites at the theater the day before.
Comments
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/zd/20011016/tc/riaa_we_ll_smother_song_swappers_1.html
The fact that they were trying to get this written into a pending antiterrorism bill is disturbing and should lead us all to wonder what else is pending in this bill.
The replies on the message board are priceless, with many people and hackers challenging them to do this and threats to the online subscription services they plan to start.
[url=http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/zd/20011016/tc/riaa_we_ll_smother_song_swappers_1.html]RIAA: We'll smother song swappers[/url]
Those non-Napster alternatives for mp3's are really pretty painful to use anyway. Napster really hit the nail on the head and solved the problem beautifully.
But now I notice people just listing their catalogs on web pages, and you send them an email asking for the ones you want and they mail them back. I'm talking thousands and thousands of these "song lists".
Google and the other search engines help you find the tunes, and like Napster, you're never sure about what you're going to get or the quality, but mp3's are still being traded openly this way.
However, I did read how the RIAA also wants to be able to scan everybody's hard-drive from the Internet whenever they want, looking for anything that *might* be copyrighted and delete it right off your computer, without your knowledge. Yes, they really did propose this to Congress and to Microsoft and also the hard-drive manufacturers, who they want to install firmware that prevents ANY mp3 content from being stored, just in case it might be something they own.
The real battle is not over mp3's but rather movies (or more precisely DVDs), which the entire entertainment industry is rapidly converting over to, because it's a lot (and I mean a lot) cheaper than the traditional analog media to make and distribute.
It's so much better that at least one major Studio has been flying some guys all over the USA to install theater-size DVD projectors practically for free! If the plan succeeds, then nearly all major motion pictures in USA theaters will be shown from these giant DVD platters, which eventually will be recorded directly from satellites at the theater the day before.
Or at least that's what my users tell me