posted by pinemikey

EDonkey carts load of criticism

By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — Sam Yagan's critics call him a pirate, an illegal operator and an encourager of child pornography because of his free online file-swapping service.
Yagan begs to differ. He's the president of New York-based MetaMachine, owner of eDonkey, where the latest music and movies are available at no charge. And all he wants is the entertainment industry to stop fighting him and instead use his giant audience — an average 2.2 million — to sell media with him. But on his terms.
"The peer-to-peer community is massive," he says. "Show me another technology on this scale that's been litigated or legislated out of business. You can't make us go away."

( I like that last line)

Read more at: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-07-22-edonkey_x.htm

"call him a pirate, an illegal operator and an encourager of child pornography because of his free online file-swapping service."

That's something new.

I also like the last line.

With all the debate on P2P, I'm going to ask a question.

Since we are in the information age, and the use of the Internet is all around us, isn't it logical that an online library, as an extension of the brick and mortar library, be considered legal? You could argue about the delivery or transmission of information, but most users of the internet have no control over that, they're just users of technology, not creators. As residents here in the U.S., we are free to donate our books to a library. And the library allows anyone with a library card the ability to check out the books. Therefore, wouldn't a logical extension allow people to pool their digital content that resides on their computer? And since P2P networks facilitate this, wouldn't they be considered legal too?

Well, at least the guy is better than KaZaA... KaZaA sues other software using it's network. This guy actually helps the other software using it's network (eMule, hint hint)

that's true Capt-n-Jack. I'd love to see someone set up a non profit digital library just like a public library and see the court battle that ensues.

To be a library, doesn't it have to be a government service? I might be wrong.

Comp...one has started....it's called Project Gutenberg, defined here: Project Gutenberg is the Internet's oldest producer of free electronic books (eBooks or etexts). Our present collection of more than 10.000 eBooks was produced by hundreds of volunteers. Most of the Project Gutenberg eBooks are older literary works that are in the public domain in the United States. All may be freely downloaded and read, and redistributed for non-commercial use. Link: http://www.gutenberg.net/

I've looked through a couple of times..I can't say how complete it will ever be, but it's a start.

Also, I like Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

However, with copyright extensions, the ability for these online libraries to become more complete is very difficult and expensive.

Capt-n-Jack, the difference I'd say is that you aren't allowed to KEEP library books, but you have to return them. Also when a new person checks out a library book, it doesn't automatically generate a new copy of the book (unless someone goes through the trouble of copying every single page, creating a pdf, etc).

Thats a huge difference to me at least.

p2p has recently failed me.

I will be cost $400 and months of time doing remastering on dvd's which i dont yet understand how to do.

That is the price i pay, because p2p failed to put the uncensored version of a series in the public eye.. a company has seen fit to be disengenuous and market the "for tv" version as "uncut".

it is very important that p2p do its job, lest things like this happen more often.

Capt-n-Jack, the difference I'd say is that you aren't allowed to KEEP library books, but you have to return them. Also when a new person checks out a library book, it doesn't automatically generate a new copy of the book (unless someone goes through the trouble of copying every single page, creating a pdf, etc).

Thats a huge difference to me at least.


yes.. but in the current library system you can check out books for A. unspecified periods of time or B. renew checkouts for as long as you please.

who needs xerox machines in libraries where kinkos is involved.

I see no difference between this and p2p.

Are we speaking of Wal-Mart, awehr?

The way I see it, if you release a TV show on DVD, it should be as originally filmed and mastered, not as shown on TV. They have to cut out a lot of stuff just for commercials and the occasional dirty word that the censors catch and don't like.

Not to mention Sci-Fi edits out a ton of footage because the older shows had a longer running time than todays shows.

Also, they should do their best to edit the deleted scenes into a show instead of showing them as a separate part of the DVD. It can be done, especially seeing as they're the ones with the degrees in TV engineering and stuff. But instead they package it in a separate part of the disc and put all kinds of junk on it to keep the amateur engineers in all of us from actually editing them into the movie. The feebs.

Right now I'd do anything to own the Battlestar Galactica DVDs. Universal actually listened to fans and remastered the whole series (yeah, there were only 24 episodes) into 5.1 surround sound and put them in their correct running order (Sci-Fi always ran it in the order ABC ran it back in 1978-79).

But I really wouldn't buy any of today's shows that always show up on DVD two days after the first season airs. That's not the proper time to release a show on DVD. I say wait until the show is either over or late in its series run. That way you can actually attract new fans to the show who want to get caught up.

Anyhoo, sorry to get off topic there.

"...the difference I'd say is that you aren't allowed to KEEP library books, but you have to return them. Also when a new person checks out a library book, it doesn't automatically generate a new copy of the book (unless someone goes through the trouble of copying every single page, creating a pdf, etc)."

"Thats a huge difference to me at least."

nyer82, yes there are differences. It seems the primary difference is due to the way browsers are designed, however, some mechanism could be created such that if one person shares a copy of a book, only one person can access it at a time, thereby preserving the one-person-per-copy concept, like in a physical library. Now, let's say, 100 people offer their books for sharing, then 100 should be allowed to check out those books. Most brick and mortar libraries don't have the physical space to house 100, or 1000 copies of each book, so they only have 1 copy, but in digital form, they could have many many more!!!

Now consider this. An online library is something NEW. Which means the rules really haven't been written yet about how they are supposed to function. Yes, we can look at how brick and mortar libraries function, but that doesn't mean we HAVE to follow that path. I see no reason why an online library couldn't issue 10,000 copies of a book. Maybe those copies would have to be checked out and would expire in 30 days, or something like that.

Now, would publishers (or the RIAA or MPAA) like this, probably not!! I think it could be worked out though, and still be legal!!

"The donkey has nothing to do with politics. But ironically, while senators debate P2P's merits, their parties are supporting it in advertising. Both the Democratic and Republican national committees are advertising on eDonkey for President Bush's and Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaigns."


LMAO!! Oh, man, this is funnier than hell. Wonder if the RIAA will go after them both for encouraging the site.

I've never heard of this site/service before. Has anyone here used it? It would actually make sense. Advertisers pay so the consumer doesn't. It's worked for NetZero. I know several people who use NetZero: some have stuck with the freebie version and put up with the ads, others liked the service and decided to pay the $10 a month and do away with the ads. It's worked.