On Mon, Oct 13, 2003 at 01:27:20PM -0400, David Schwanke wrote: [snip] > I went through 20 or 30 files on each list and didn't find a single file > that wasn't someone stealing someone elses intellectually property. > Music, movies, software, even porn. > > Roughly speaking, I view using bittorent with your site as having to > wade through a crack house district to get to that really nice book shop > that for whatever reason feels its best location is right next door to a > crack house.
I've always found this perspective on peer-to-peer technology fascinating. You clearly have no such misgivings using the web or email, both of which are used *extensively* to infringe copyright or transmit porn. Why should an application which uses peer-to-peer be different? For that matter, how do you justify using a computer at all? --- me --- See the msg I just wrote about the difference between p2p and ftp/http/other standard protocols from the software pirate/porn distributers perspective. Ive played both sides of the fence. And made a substantial amount of money on the illegal side. There is a BIG difference. P2p makes it 100 times easier to commit theft then the internet alone does. Whether your deep into software piracy/porn or just a casual user, its clear to see that it advances THAT industry far more then it does the legitimate ones no matter how much 'potential' it has. And if you cant see that (whether or not you agree that it shouldn't be used because of it) then your just putting your blinders on and not admitting that that's a crackhouse next door and it might be your kids that visit it. In the software piracy underground there are degrees of access that you can gain based on the amount of respect you earn in the community. The more you prove yourself and your ability to keep a secret, break the law without getting caught, and general intelligence the higher you can get. I ran a US top 10 board. We transferred easily over a million dollars worth of stolen software in the time that I ran it give or take a couple hundred thousand. In that time I learned that public internet access is the LEAST usefull way to transfer stolen software but an unfortunately necessity primarily because that is the only way the end user has the best ability to receive it. 90% of the high traffic for software piracy (including music and video as software) is done through private payed locations. Usually campus networks because of their unlimited free access to students and high bandwidth abilities. HOWEVER, as each new level of p2p technology has come forward and increasing amount of that illegal transfer has been shifting from the private locations into public domain and been done not by 'trained professionals' (I use the term very loosely hehe) but by the common joe, and has increased the general access to stolen software several fold. This really would be a great idea, were it not for the fact that we live in a messed up world where crime and the internet go hand in hand far more then crime and real life. --- you --- The fact is, bittorrent is a tool. It happens to be a very useful and effective tool. The fact that it can be used to distribute illegal copies of software or porn does not diminish its usefulness as a distribution tool. Similarly, the fact that a personal computer can be used to digitally copy a DVD and make it available to millions of people around the globe does not diminish its usefulness as a word processor. --- me --- No, it doesn't. But 98% of the user populace of bittorent (according to the only two lists that bittorrent advertises as places to find files) is using it illegally as opposed to not nearly that for the general computer or even general internet connection. As David pointed out earlier, the technology in bittorrent is exciting stuff. It may be that one day soon, your browser will make use of the same technology, because it is an *efficient way to deliver content*. --- That may be the case. And ill be more then happy so long as a company such as Microsoft or Sun or whomever is in charge of it. They have something to loose when its used all too often for software piracy and music/video theft. Whether you like to admit it or not (you actually haven't said so maybe this is a mistaken assumption) but Microsoft is the leading single internet software seller because of IE. As such if you want 'my browser' to incorporate it, its going to have to get through Microsoft. :D Until then its just a downloader hack and extra nuisance to your customers. _______________________________________________ plucker-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.rubberchicken.org/mailman/listinfo/plucker-list
