[Alexa]

Clicky!

 

[Polygon]

How annoying. Good thing I don't use KaAzA.

 

[dhwilkin]

Is there a known list of the pseudonyms used by the worm?

 

[Alexa]

Heh. Too bad Im still using Norton 2000. So outdated *blush*

 

[jlo mein]

my friend got a really bad virus from kazaa...not sure if its "benjamin", but it was still pretty deadly....made him reformat his harddrive....

it kept on creating new files in his shared folder directory....within an hour he was unable to use his pc since it ran too slow with all those files being made....

good thing i dont use kazaa....and i should probably get a anti virus scanner for my new pc too....

with my motherboard i got a scanner called PC-cillin2000 for free...is it any good???

 

[Beagle]

Computers suck. They will destroy the human race, and not slowly either.

 

[Audio Redneck]

Quote:

Originally posted by Beagle Computers suck. They will destroy the human race, and not slowly either.

Ah, so you're an IT Manager/Sys Admin, too?

 

[grinch]

$50 says some hacker was hired by the riaa to make that worm

i still feel that file-sharing programs outright suck; go buy cds you whining cheap little bastards. thank you.

 

[phidauex]

Ok, first off: Why are you guys using kazaa??? Stop that. Drop that dirty habit. Its for masochists and tools of corporate oppression. If you like file sharing programs, try Gnucleus. Its open source, and GPL. and it searches the gnutella network. Its got NO spyware, NO adware, and it isn't run by a company who is trying to use you, its not even run by a company, its a community project. Morpheus and numerous other file sharing applications are actually BASED on the gnucleus code. So why not get the original, with no ads, spyware, or silly crap?

http://www.gnucleus.com

Its designed for the windows environment, and runs great, with all the nice features of other file sharing apps.

peace,
phidauex

 

[dhwilkin]

Quote:

grinch said... i still feel that file-sharing programs outright suck; go buy cds you whining cheap little bastards. thank you.

Only after I check to see if the CD is actually worth paying the money for. Either way, I delete the mp3s once I decide. If anything, I buy more CDs because of file-sharing programs, thank you very much.

Quote:

phideaux said... If you like file sharing programs, try Gnucleus. Its open source, and GPL. and it searches the gnutella network.

Ugh, I can't stand the Gnutella network. I've tried just about every client for it, and out of roughly 50 files I tried to download, I only got three of them. All the others either timed out or wouldn't let me connect at all. That's unacceptable. And no, I'm not behind a firewall. I'll stick w/ Kazaa Lite. All the fringe benefits of a Gnutella client (open-source, no ad-ware or spy-ware, etc...), and much better performance.

 

[phidauex]

Quote:

Originally posted by grinch i still feel that file-sharing programs outright suck; go buy cds you whining cheap little bastards. thank you. [/B]

Do you work for RIAA?

I support artists through live shows, vinyl purchases and donations. I am of the opinion that information is not property, and hence, is not something that people have a right to restrict my use of. I'm morally opposed to the concept of 'intellectual property.' I think that it runs counter to the natural flow of creativity, and exists as a method for large companies to exert control over artists and listeners alike. I'm not the only one who feels this way, do a search for the free music philosophy.

Anyway, I don't want to make a big deal about it, but basically, I don't support copyright law. I think its great that people sell cds, and i think its good that people buy them, because they get a nice case, and all the good liner notes, and a nice stable hardcopy, but I don't think there is anything wrong with copying the music freely. Information wants to be free, its wrong to hold it down.

Anyway, yay for file sharing.

peace,
phidauex

 

[grinch]

congratulations to everyone who just discovered the marvels of mp3. personally, i was downloading mp3s in 1996. this was also before napster was popular, and before they started hosting mp3s on mtv. i still remember when mp3.com used to ran ftp file searches! those were the days.. mp3s were even worse quality then, and a major bog-down for space due to the fact that my biggest hd at the time was 1.25gb. it seems so obviously illegal to me, but i guess i'm the only one who agrees with that whole "copyright" thing. it is not legal. it shouldn't ever become legal. it is also the reason why i have to pray numerous times before putting any new cd into my computer. copy-protection of audio cds is a horrible idea. a horrible idea that was given birth due to the fact that people love mp3s and won't buy their damn albums. you people are ruining the damn industry for us people who actually buy the albums! thank goodness the independent labels i listen to don't buy into that garbage..

on a sidenote, i was at my sister's house recently and messing around with morpheus and i too found that none of the songs downloaded. i also noticed that the lists downloaded at a whopping 2.35kb/s, when they were actually getting packets. it has a great idea connecting to multiple servers (from a technical standpoint anyway ), but the idea just isn't working heh.

 

[phidauex]

I've been using mp3 and other formats for a long time too, grinch, I've also been buying albums for a long time. I'm not saying it isn't illegal to copy music, but I'm saying that it shouldn't be illegal. The idea that Information Is Property is an incorrect assumption that is largely a product of the last 20 years.

When companies like Microsoft first started selling software, many people in the industry thought it was nuts. They said, "How can you sell software? How do you put a CONCEPT into a little box, shrinkwrap it, and sell it from a storefront?" Well, the companies said, "Watch us." and they did it. Around the same time, in 1983, the GNU project was started as an attempt to liberate software. Not STEAL software, but write new software, and use a special copyright license to give users the rights to unlimited modification and distribution. Those rights had been implicit in the past, until companies decided that copyright, instead of being a tool to aid the user, was instead a tool to take rights away from the user.

Anything created is partially a product of all the creations you have seen, and heard, and studied. We call this practice CREATIVITY, not piracy. Information is a concept. It can be infinitely reproduced in electronic mediums, without damage to the integrity of the data. It is not a product. Let me say that again. Information Is Not A Product. CDs are products. Records are products. Hamburgers are products. Music is NOT a product. Information, by its very nature, WANTS to be copied. It WANTS to spread. Knowledge is not owned by anyone, it belongs to everyone. When a copyright is used to restrict your ability to copy and modify the information you have, it is going against the operational philosophy of information. It tries to grip something that cannot be held.

Musicians create music to be heard. Any musician who is in it for money I won't have anything to do with anyway. Music wants to be heard. It wants to be copied a billion times, so that everyone in the world can listen to it. But artists need to make money! Of course they do. I understand that. Artists should sell CDs, and people will buy them because they want the liner notes, and the case, and the professionally printed CD. Artists should sell records. I buy LOTS of records, because I love how they sound, and I enjoy the tactile experience, and I like having big cover art. Artists should sell tickets to their live performances. I go to lots of performances, big name bands, symphonies, local artists, etc. Artists should recieve donations. I've sent donations to artists who's music I've gotten a lot out of. I also support endowment programs that support new artists, allowing them to get their name out for the first time.

What is killing the industry is NOT people copying music. What is killing the industry is the greed of the record companies, and the artists who follow them so blindly. What is killing the industry is last-ditch gropes for control like CD copy protection schemes. What is killing the industry is an environment where all the radio stations are owned by one of two companies, who also own the record companies, who determine every single song that does and does not get on the radio. If you aren't on the big label, you are going to have to FIGHT to get any radio play at all, and it will probably only be local stations who have a 'local music hour' or some lucky hits at the small handful of still independently owned stations.

The digital music revolution is changing the way the world sees music. For the better. Bands like Wilco, and artists like Afroman, would never have been discovered, because the record companies passed them over. But because of the speed and efficiency of digital music copying, they were discovered. Wilco just released their latest album entirely online. They still sell CDs and people still buy them, even though they openly post their songs as mp3s.

Even earlier, bands like The Samples, and The Butthole Surfers, and Phish, and The Grateful Dead, and The Dead Kennedys, and many more, encouraged people to tape live shows. Do you think all those thousands of bootleg tapes being copied and passed around HURT the band? Hell no! It made them more popular than ever, because they let their music be heard by more people.

Part of the reason music costs so much is because the record companies are spending so much money FIGHTING music copying. But if they just stopped fighting, they could lower their prices, making the originals MORE ATTRACTIVE to customers. Their battle is only self defeating. The more they mess up CDs with copy protection, and raise the prices, the fewer CDs people will buy. That ONLY HURTS THE ARTISTS. The record company execs have plenty of money for themselves, when CDs don't sell, its the the artists who get the shaft. Even when they do sell, artists get a pitiance of the cost anyway. I say cut down on the BLOAT of the record companies, charge less for CDs (which they can do, because they won't be in CONSTANT legal battles), don't fight music copying, and give more of the CD profits to artists. Artists should focus more on live performance, seeing your favorite band play live is not copy-able, its a once in a lifetime experience. Artists should focus on selling quality products, like CDs that work (no copy protection) with quality inserts, lyrics, pictures, things that are nice to have in hardcopy.

The industry is killing itself, because its founded on the fallacy that information is property. If it changes its form, and people change the way they think about music, the music world will be better for it. Better for the artists, and better for the listeners.

We are so used to thinking about copyright in the terms of restriction of rights, that its hard to imagine a world where copyright law is used to GIVE people rights. But if you think about it, that world could be a great improvement over what we have now. Think outside the box, as they say.

Peace,
phidauex

 

[grinch]

Quote:

Originally posted by phidauex The industry is killing itself, because its founded on the fallacy that information is property. If it changes its form, and people change the way they think about music, the music world will be better for it. Better for the artists, and better for the listeners.

i think the world is killing itself. put that ideal to anything, especially politics and it's just depressing.

but i still disagree that a song is not property. if i write a song and record it it is my property. if you listen to my song and play it and record it yourself, would you honestly say to somebody that it is "your song"? this of course won't happen though, because i don't write songs heh.

and **** radio play, i'm so sick of people's obsession with the radio. i haven't listened to any form of radio in years, it just sickened me too much then and i don't even want to fathom the vomitous extent of which it exists now. if you want to let somebody else pick your songs for you, hit the random button.

i will never EVER listen to a band because they have radio play. to me, that is the most dumb reason to like music.. because somebody else likes it? because the record company spends the money so that you hear it? i generally buy cds for a few reasons:

1. i like the packaging
2. i've heard the band and like them
3. i liked the other album i have by them
4. they put on a great live show and i buy the cd afterward
5. they have a cool name
6. someone recommended them to me

are my reasons trite and stupid? yes. do i care what you think about them? no. at least they are my reasons and my decisions.. not carson daly's.

 

[phidauex]

Don't worry grinch, i'm not crapping on your CD buying. I don't think its wrong to buy CDs, I just think its wrong to prevent people from copying CDs. The original is always going to be preferable to copies for many people, because they want the nice things associated with a hardcopy original.

I'm not saying that once I get a cd, the song is 'mine', i'm saying that it doesn't belong to anyone. Its information, its like saying 'i own the air' or something. Its not something that can be held onto and 'owned'. People own items, THINGS, I own my CD player, I own my shoes, I own a CD. I don't own the data impressioned on the CD, for it is just a concept, I can't own a concept.

As far as radio play goes, I don't really listen to the radio either. But radio play can be important for new artists. Its how they get heard. People think "Ahh, i want to hear some new music, i'll just listen to the radio, and hear some stuff i've never heard before, maybe i'll like some of it" They turn on the radio and listen for new music. The way radio play works now is that only the few bands who are hand picked by the record companies get any radio play, so you turn on the radio, and its the same songs over and over and over. The way radio is supposed to be, and the way it is on a few of the countries last independent radio stations, is that they are always searching for new music to play. You can turn on the radio and hear something you've never heard before. Maybe you'll like it! The radio used to be very important to musicians, because if they could get radio play, people all over the city/state/country could hear, and if they liked it, people all over would start buying cds, and the band could tour and people would know their name, and it really got them going.

Nowadays, a small artist can't get any radio play, because they aren't 'radio congolmerate approved'. That is part of the reason we have this wide disparity between 'super mega bands' and 'groveling local artists'. There isn't much of a middle road these days...

So anyway, I think that a lot of people buy cds because everyone else likes it, but I also think that the radio has the ability (even if its not doing this now) to expose people to new music that they would never have had a chance to hear, and some of it they may enjoy.

Anyway, its cool to buy cds, i'm not arguing that, i just don't think that music copying is whats hurting the music industry, i think greed is what is hurting the music industry.

Peace,
phidauex