[philip]

Originally posted by Cerek the Barbaric: I personally disagree with anti-P2P legislation for a number of reasons. First of all, if I want to share a file or copy a file from someone else - and we are both willing to share those files - then that should be allowed (IMO, of course). Secondly, I'm not worried about the legislation outlawing VCR's - but I'm extremely worried about it outlawing PC's!!!! CDRW drives are standard equipment on ALL PC's being manufactured today. That - coupled with the availability of P2P software - makes your basic home computer FAR more likely to be targeted as a "dual use" device that has the potential for copyright infringement.

You could as well share those files on a site or via messenger if you know each other. And if you compare the files someone wants to share to the copyrighted files that are shared there for free without the author allowing it is small.

But just as VCR it's too much to also make computers illegal. But just the p2p networks helps in any case.

I personally think the impact of P2P sharing is blown greatly out of proportion by the RIAA and others. I admit I could be wrong because I base this on personal experience. I've downloaded many music files in order to make "compilation" CD's. The files include songs by various artists (and sometimes specific artists to create a "Best Of" type album) and it also includes different genres of music.

Well I don't know if you have kazaa or another p2p-network but you can often see how many users are online. If there are 3 million users online (tested myself with my brother's kazaa)

The plain fact is that I would have spent around $200 or more to get these songs off the original CD's because there were usually only 1 or 2 songs on a specific CD that I wanted or liked. And that is another thing that P2P could accomplish. It could force artists to start producing better quality music and including a larger number of good tracks on a CD rather than putting the one or two tracks they expect to make it as singles and then just putting "filler songs" on the rest of the CD.

There are other ways to get those tracks. There are online services from which you can download mp3s for money. Does quality songs equal songs you like? Cause that would be the wrong way around. Instead of the artist choosing what he wants to make you choose :/ (of course in some genres this won't go up cause it's the record company writing and overproducing everything. But I stay away from those [img]smile.gif[/img] )

Sadly for me - but happily for the supporters of P2P regulation - I lost ALL of my files when I had a new HD put into my machine. So I no longer have the files nor do I have the software to obtain them. Because of all the spyware associated with ALL of the P2P software (even KaZaa Light), I am seriously considering NOT downloading ANY of the P2P programs.

There are clients that don't have spyware. My brother's kazaa even links to spybot and adawar IIRC. Also I can't disble it anymore by scanning with a lot of different programs. But these programs are hacked versions and thus illegal already.

Of course, I downloaded more than just music files. I also downloaded several music videos (especially from the 80's) because I never got to watch MTV very much growing up (our local cable system didn't carry it). So I really enjoyed watching some of those videos I never got a chance to watch when they were new or "hot".

I don't know if there are any rules for that but that doesn't seem like a bad thing. Artists aren't selling those clips anyway and they're just for promotion. I don't know for old clips but a lot of the new ones can be found on the internet as well. In my case it takes a lot of searching but that's mainly to blame to what music I listen to.

I'll have to abide by whatever decision is reached, but I'll never agree that anti-P2P is a good thing - because I believe it violates the privacy of each of us as individuals, but again, that's just my opinion. YMMV.

I might have totally missed that in what you wrote above but how exactly does anti-p2p violates our privacy?

edit - of course I'm against banning VCRs cd/dvd burners or computers at all

[ 06-21-2004, 11:07 AM: Message edited by: philip ]