![]()
From time to time, We receive a well thought out commentary from someone other than the staff or our opinion writers. The following is from one of those people, who have concerns, and thoughts on the state of the music industry and file sharing. Thanks Stephen.
File Sharing is here to stay. One way or another, the sharing of MP3 files will continue for quite some time. This is because there is too much demand, and the programmers are many steps ahead of the industry lobbyists.
The RIAA and its member labels may have castrated Napster, and may kill KaZaa. However, there are many file sharing programs that are not "easy prey" for the RIAA. As a matter of fact, there are some that will still work, even if the developers go to jail, or the web site that hosts them goes out of business.
Some of the programs are "Open Source", meaning that the source code is freely available, modifyable, copyable, and the like. Being "Open Source" also means that they are not companies, and that there is no one organization responsible for administering or monitioring the sharing networks. Many open source networks are "decentralized" meanign that there is no central server, and each machine sharing is a client, a server, and a directory station. As such, these networks connect with other computers runnign the same software directly. These kind of technologies will work indefinetly, since no other software or servers are required to interface them. Gnutella, Freenet, Espra, giFT, and others work this way.
Even if all CDs get copy protected, Hackers will find ways to "rip" them. It is only a matter of time. I heard the soundtrack "The Fast and the Ferrious" got ripped by a hacker in 15 minutes flat. People will also connect the analog and SPDIF outs from their CD players to their computers, and rip CDs this way. People will write an MP3 ripper that can rip them. The more protection, and uselessness created, encourages hackers to create tools that restore usability. People will share these MP3/OGG rips, and they are NOT copy protected when they are created this way.
Even DRM protected tracks can be converted to MP3, WAV, or OGG easily. According to Brad Hill, he was able to convert both Pressplay Downloads and Streams to MP3 with a rip tool. Other people I know have converted Musicnet downloads to MP3 this way too. Some sound cards can record anything played through them and save it as WAV or MP3. Also, DRM is hackable, too. Beale Screamer had a utility that unprotected WMA tracks.
The Proposed SSSCA law, that would require copy protection built into computer hard disks, and the like is not perfect. Michael Eisner from Disney was asked at a hearing, "what is to stop someone from recording a movie with a camcorder in a theatre, and then saves the movie in a non-copy protected format, and shares it over Gnutella?" , He replied "Nothing can stop that!". Even hardware DRM is hackable. For example, many arcade games had security copy protection chips. Many of them have been hacked, even some that secured the decryption key in battery backed RAM (see CPS2Shock.retrogames.com). Lets face it, the encrypted data gets decrypted somewhere!
Last of all, it is near impossible to sue each and every one who is sharing, or operates a sharing service. Tracking down the world would be very hard, if not impossible. Next, copyright laws do differ from country to country. For example, Opennap is not illegal in Canada, because there is no "contributory infringment" there. Sealand does not have any copyright restrictions or laws at all, so probably all music sharing is legal there. Next, with the decentralized technologies there is no one entity to sue, except indivual users. With indiviual users, they will probably not get $150,000 for every work downloaded that is infringed. What about if the user is a little child, or a person who only makes $6.00 per hour, and does not own any property or collateral? Is it really worth hiring the big buck lawyers under these conditions, just to get a few MP3 files off the internet? I think not.
It seems like for every sharing program the RIAA brings down, more pop up to take their place. What I think the RIAA would do if they were smart, is just to license the commercial P2P and download companies their music, and allow it in MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and other "common" formats. Granted, we may have to pay for it, but it would be a good selection. Right now, there is little incentive to use Musicnet and Pressplay when Gnutella, Morpheus, Grokster, and Limewire are far better services, cost nothing, and offer a greater music catalog.
Stephen
Stephen
Remye
