Barenaked Ladies Battle Napster (But Not In Court) 282
Yet Another Smith writes: "CNN is running a story about the Barenaked Ladies' attempt to flood Napster with trojan downloads with ads for their new album rather than the alleged songs. Say what you want about Napster being right or wrong, at least the band isn't just doing the kneejerk lawsuit, and it sounds pretty tongue-in-cheek." I don't listen to the radio, so I downloaded "Pinch Me" from Napster, and based on that (and the fact that I rank Stunt and Gordon among the best albums ever) I bought Maroon the day after it came out (making it the only CD I've bought since the lawsuit vs. Napster started: and for someone that used to buy 5 CDs a week, that's saying something). Personally I think this is a good way to fight (but unfortunately upcoming technology will make this technique less successful) so I've got no problem with BNL doing this.
X Rated headline ! (Score:5)
"Good way to fight"...? (Score:5)
This is a "good way to fight"? It seems someone would rather have vigilante justice than clean-cut law.
Ultimately, it seems this is all about just wanting to get free music. Would you buy their music if they sold you MP3s online? Would you then respect their ownership, and instead of passing it around, point others to visit the site?
If someone doesn't want to let their music be passed around, they have every right not to let it be. If someone likes the concept of their songs being passed around, let it happen! It's up to the creator to decide (or at least, it should be...)
sense of humor (Score:1)
Will Napster fight back? (Score:3)
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Inquiring minds don't really care.
Re:NOOO! (Score:3)
Why're you disliking the bands that're trying to make money off of their works? IMO, I see absolutely no problems with bands using Napster as a venue of cheap advertisement. However, when recording companies do this....
I realise that sometimes, the differences between bands and recording companies are a bit blurry at best, though. Comments?
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MP3 Spam. Oh dear. (Score:2)
As many people burn CDs with MP3's, and as many CD's are NON-rewritable, once you burn that ad in, you've got it for the next 200 years (the lifetime of a CD not exposed to UV light).
This may be a neat gimic, but let's just hope it stays a gimic. Never mind the added network bandwidth, my brain couldn't handle yet another corporate jingle.
Re:NOOO! (Score:1)
And the problem is? (Score:5)
Do you agree with this Trojan-style approach taken by the Barenaked Ladies?
And the results after 3583 Votes are:
Yes: 57% (2037)
No: 43% (1546)
Really, we have already seen porn banners and usage tracking scams on Gnutella and Napster, here one band is actually using the medium to try and do a bit of self promotion. They (I'm sure) are under no self-delusion that they are going to manage to obfuscate access to the real mp3s of their music, they are just reminding all the people who are hunting for their music that it would be nice if they actually paid for it.
The REAL question is could the RIAA break Napster/Gnutella etc. as a useful tool by bombarding it with files like these (or just corrupt mp3s) and would it be economically viable to do this (just how much bandwidth would they need).
alt.binaries.pictures.sex.napster (Score:2)
Pleaaaaase post more of Natalie Portman!
Re:NOOO! (Score:1)
Heh. I don't know. One might think that BNL's ads might be protected under satire. Or just smartasstire.
I always liked Grand Theft Canoe better anyway...
I don't quite understand. (Score:1)
Of course, if they were really smart, they'd make the advertisements the same length as the other songs. BUT, since mp3's are compressed, the song length would never be the same size. It would be very easy to pick out.
Headline: BNL wins approval of CmdrTaco, (Score:5)
Holland, MI (AP) In a post this morning, CmdrTaco gave the nod to the Barenaked Ladies' use of Napster to promote their upcoming album. BNL could not be reached for comment, and Canadians all over the world were saying that it was too early in the day for tacos, anyway.
What??? Why dislike them?? (Score:2)
I disagree with the cost of CD's (relative to the manuf. costs) but until there is a sensible way to listen to what I want, and then purchase the songs I like with no hassle and very low cost, I'm still going to download samples from mp3.com and buy the albums I like from HMV or Tower Records.
Wouldn't get them from Napster though - way too much hassle!!
Anyway - when you have a wide enough group of friends, I can get most of what I want through copying tracks from them - and that is still a legal grey area:)
Frog51
Never mind, eh? (Score:1)
At any rate, BNL are a fine band. Buy their album!
Spam on Napster (Score:1)
Is there anyone here who is as sadistic as I am, that would find it extremely hilarious, if BNL were taken to court over their use of a computer for unsolicited commercial email? *grin*
Seriously though,... what if all of the sudden we see a huge Spam outbreak on Napster,... my opinion is that it'll die like Usenet did. Same cause, same effect.
huh? (Score:2)
Re:"Good way to fight"...? (Score:1)
Can you sing it again, maybe to your girlfriend?
Can you remember your experience, share it with anybody you like, consider it yours to spread or not?
Well, just imagine a hard drive is just an extension of your brain
Once information is out, there is no way to put it back in. If you've read "the culture" books from banks, you might have encountered an interesting concept: the only form of private information is the information you keep to yourself
OMFG You u se napster to download music? (Score:1)
Next, the battle of Google? (Score:1)
To combat this, many 'fake' pictures of the ladies are being added to these 'engines's databases. These 'trojan horse' images feature the same women, however they are fully clothed, and contain advertising links to their homepage.
"This is a just a way for us to combat the theft of our hard work" Wippin' Wendy of HardCoreXXX [disney.com] had to say. "This just helps bring back our real customers."
No-one from any of the engines was avalable to comment.
Even if they DO break Napster.. (Score:2)
Check out the OpenNAP network in particular -- the service is fast, and the audio is good.
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CitizenC
It's all about freedom. (Score:5)
Napster isn't just about swapping MP3s for free.. It's about filesharing. Any file. I heard this mentioned quitea lot in the napster defence, and also that of GNUtella.
So, why oh why slate BNL for pointing out that they are, indeed, free to post whatever they want, even if this is just advertising for them.
They are making a legitimate use of services offered for all, in the same way that Napster uses services offered across the internet (connectivity etc).
Personally, I'd far prefer this to the kneejerk 'call in the legal vultures' to sort it out.
I think they've made their statement pretty well out there.. "We'd prefer it if you didn't rip off our music"..
I'm all for that. It's just them exercising their freedom of speech, in a fashion. I'm not about to slate them for that.
Malk
Re:MP3 Spam. Oh dear. (Score:1)
Baz
Expensive CD habit (Score:1)
Oh, gimme a break. I'm kidding. Still, it gives you a good point to look at when wondering where the RIAA gets its war chest. Doesn't Microsoft wish they could get even half that much from as many people... Oh, wait! They release a new version of Office every year! (Well, they wish they did, but it's getting closer!) That's a 2-CD set that goes for $800... close enough!
Okay, enough sarcasm. I go now.
A start of a parody (Score:4)
I would flood Napster's network...(and piss off all the script kiddies, too!)
And if I had a million dollars...(if I had a million dollars,)
I'd blow off the R-I-double-A...(and tell their lawyers to screw themselves!)
And if I had a million dollars...(if I had a million dollars,)
I'd produce another CD...(and get a ton of royalties...)
And if you have $17, go buy our CD!
Re:"Good way to fight"...? (Score:1)
Be happy about this! ...oh, and get to work on a spam trap for mp3 ads.
Small point (Score:4)
...because they cannot be.
One major problem with this point - outside of what the MPAA would like you to believe, MP3, avi,
*MSWord '.doc' can contain scripts that are interpreted, but fundamentally anything not compiled(binary) is data - including
Music Industry & Retail CDs != RIAA (Score:5)
Re:Will Napster fight back? (Score:4)
- Napster does not, and cannot, control what content is available to you using the Napster browser. Napster users decide what content to make available to others using the Napster browser, and what content to download.
...
So I assume that's a caveat emptor.Napster makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation of this web site, the Napster service, or the information, content, materials, services or products included or referenced on this web site.
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Let me rephrase. (Score:1)
Of course I'm not going to dislike them *just* because of this. But frankly it's irritating. When I have no bad feelings or dislikes for a band, I like it to stay that way, so when they do something I might not like, well, it tarnishes their image in my mind. Now, if they were being total jerks like metallica, then I *would* have to totally dislike them for it.
Here is where I could go on and on about the recent increases in record sales, but I won't do that. But there isn't currently any proof that I know of that shows that mp3s are hurting sales. So, until then, I don't think there's much reason for bands to get upset. Now, if BNL is truly using this just as a means of advertising, then nevermind. Though that's still kinda irritating.
"It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it."
This will work for all of 10 minutes. (Score:3)
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but if you download an mp3, and find out that it's not the song, but just an advertisement, are YOU going to keep it around? Well, I would -- but not before renaming it, so that users knew what the content of the mp3 was.
Besides that, I'm sure that once everybody figured out where the trojan (I'm using that term with regret here) mp3s were coming from, then that user would be bannished from everybody's electronic kingdom for ever.
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CitizenC
And the supposed potential problem is... (Score:4)
Napster has no rule against what you can and can't distribute as an MP3; after all, it's just an indexing service, right?
What, then, warrants the "I've got no problem with this" qualifier? What problem is there in the first place? What aspect of BNL's actions even begins to enter the realm of problematic, or even unethical, for that matter?
BNL isn't battling Napster; they're actually using it to their advantage. It's free advertising to a decidedly interested market, and they have every right to take advantage of it as such.
Collectors Items? (Score:1)
Offtopic though, their popularity has died down here in Canada. It was our nice little secret until they hit big Stateside, but like Celine and Shania, BNL has sort of disappeared off our own radars...and every American college kid thinks they've hit something big. :)
Calum
Perfect application for music fingerprinting! (Score:2)
This is one of the reasons a free, open music fingerprint database has so much potential to be cool. Let's hope eTantrum or another non-RIAA-lead fingerprinting library (with the intention of helping consumers, not tracking them) becomes the standard here!
Yes they could but they wouldn't (Score:1)
Re:Collectors Items? (Score:1)
What kind of crack was I on? Let me rephrase that. Like Celine and Shania, BNL have become internationally known, so we don't seem to care about them anymore in Canada. Now, every college kid in America thinks they've hit something big.
Calum PS-phew. College kids aren't allowed to like AOR stuff!
Re:And the problem is? (Score:1)
The trojan (Score:4)
There is a 50MB download called "newtrojan.wav" which you can listen to on the CNN web page:
http://www. cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/09/18/trojan.music/ne
Banter:
Do I have to write "run"?
I spilled a coffee on my flow chart.
We fooled you, huh? We're sneaky like that. You can never trust a Canadian. Next thing we'll be supplying your natural resources.
I don't listen to radio (Score:1)
I love the way people justify they're wrongs. The record company is evil, Cds cost too much.
Just say "I like free music." three times..don't you feel better.
Cd's DO cost to much, but that doesn't give you the right to take tracks off them for free. Just don't but they CD's
look its one of those things, if your car polutes and noone elses because they bought polution control devices, does does it make a difference. Not really. Now, if everyone thought like you, we'd all be driving poluting cars and polution would be worse. This is why we need government, since they make the playing field more level.
Does it matter to a band if they don't sell 1 album because you downloaded it. No. Now if everyone thinks like you the band will be back saying "do you want fries..." and not making music.
Why don't you listen to streaming mp3 instead of radio? When you buy an album your paying money to listen to the music you want anytime, anywhere. (Although the overzelous RIAA might question that assertion.)
Also, what ever happened to supporting bands you like to listen too?
Silly boys... (Score:1)
It's the exact same principle that has allowed the recorded music industry to survive, despite the existence of the radio and the tape deck. A second-hand copy, broadcast over the airwaves (or the 'net), complete with static (or CPU hiccups, courtesy of that eye-candy screensaver) just isn't good enough for the serious music fan. But it IS good enough to get the point across.
--LordEq
Re:Will Napster fight back? (Score:1)
---
Yesterday upon the stair / I saw a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today / Oh how I wish he'd go away.
Ma Boys (Score:1)
Re:MP3 Spam. Oh dear. (Score:1)
By itself Napster is NOT good for artists... (Score:3)
If you add micro-payment collection from the download receiver (cutting out the RIAA, the MPAA, the record companies and otehr pimps who had no hand in promotion or distribution,) then Napster is very good for artists.
The price for consumers would be VERY nice too.
A trusted source to weed out the jokers (like BNL and others which less noble motives) who spam the p2p broadband, somebody like MP3.com, is all that's needed.
Untrusted Peer-to-peer is fine, if your peers are weirdoes, nuts, anybody who wants to spoof you, infect you and abuse you.
Napster by itself is going to become commercial community television. Its going to go the same way as the news groups... Spammed to death.
This world NEEDS editors (the human sort) and trusted sources...
Re:I don't quite understand. (Score:1)
dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1 count=10000 >> mymusicfile.mp3
to make the file 10000 bytes longer for example.
Re:"Good way to fight"...? (Score:2)
It seems to me the problem is thus solved. Why waste bandwidth trading MP3's? Just have everyone relate their experiences or sing the songs to each other.
Re:huh? (Score:2)
Maybe I'm stating the obvious...
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malicious trojan (Score:1)
//rdj
Finding the 'trojan' mp3 (Score:3)
(Ironic point of note: I'm listening to Yoko Ono, on cd, as I type this =)
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CitizenC
Re:Ma Boys (Score:1)
Rob is my hero! Thanks for posting a BNL story. *Big thumbs up*
Re:Spam on Napster (Score:2)
Why do people keep saying USENet is dead? Is it because they don't use it anymore, so therefore it must be dead? Are people so self-centered that they think once they stop using a service it no longer can survive without their participation? They do? Oh, well that explains it then.
Move along. Nothing to see here.
taco likes dvds more than cds (Score:2)
another thing: a lot of you kiddies jump all over anyone who violates the gpl without giving them a second to explain and correct the violation, while at the same time you violate licenses on music and then complain when the riaa, etc. try to enforce their licenses. in other words, you believe in copyrights only when it suits you. you sure don't like it when people violate the gpl, but you don't mind posting mp3s of copyrighted music on napster.
Yeah but... (Score:1)
Re:It's all about freedom. (Score:1)
just saying that if you listen to the ad in the music, they say that once the cd is released, the whole track without the ad will be available on napster too.. just some food for thought :)
--- Slashdot burned your story? XYU [dhs.org] won't!
Re:MP3 Spam. Oh dear. (Score:2)
Just another way to advertise (Score:1)
One take on this issue by Courtney Love (Score:2)
See? We have to oppose the monopolistic juggernauts of the music industry, the big 5. Sony is the first one that has to go, their infamous "acquire now, monetarily compensate later, maintain profit margin, grasshopper" doctrine has gone too far. I feel that Sony is mainly responsible for the Japanizing of American society. I think a protest should be lead against Sony; each protester with a piece of Sony's legacy in one hand, and a hammer in the other hand to smash the offending merchandise. And, to top it off, this will be done to the tune of "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors. I really have to borrow that Romy and Michelle's CD from my sister so I can rip that track.
Re:The trojan (Score:1)
But apparently they have to much bandwith... at least there's some good use for my dsl connection now.
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A hackish way to fight (Score:1)
Of course, I'd be annoyed when it'd happen to me, but on the other hand, this is a hackish way to fight. (Or do you prefer lawsuits over and over?)
Re:I don't quite understand. (Score:2)
Re:The trojan (Score:2)
Actually, I think the original was an mp3, and CNN decided to convert to a wav file to make it listenable for people without mp3 players. They must have too much bandwidth at cnn.
Re:X Rated headline ! (Score:2)
Trojan MP3s and embedded ads (Score:3)
Will this be Napster's future? Will it become just a big online radio that will have nothing but ads and Top 40 cr@p?
Also, do you think the band or the record company had the most to do with the using of trojan MP3s? I would like to think it was the record company's doing, but it was the band that recorded the ad...
--weenie NT4 user: bite me!
Re:Spam on Napster (Score:2)
It took years to get most of the lamers off of the Usenet (the longest October indeed), but now most people seem to think it is all porn spam and meowers and don't bother connecting anymore. Most AOLers don't even know the Usenet exists anymore, and many of the newbies who found it years ago have grown up and either left or became contributing members.
Plus the Usenet is a great way to get new kinds of music/tv shows that you have never seen before (unlike Napster, which is only well suited for searching out "popular" music you already know about.
Re:malicious trojan (Score:2)
//rdj
Re:Music Industry & Retail CDs != RIAA (Score:2)
Now I'm trying to find a way to get the money to BNL directly while I d/l the new songs from Napster. I will gladly support BNL. I refuse to support Time Warner as long as they are attacking me.
________________
Re:Napster abuse (Score:2)
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Re:This is sick (Score:2)
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Typical BNL (Score:3)
This MP3 is a great addition to my collection of rare/live songs of theirs I have. I've had this version of it for about a month now, so those of you who say 'it will never work', it's been working for a MONTH. I went looking for the song the day the single was released and found this one, laughed my ass off, and went on my merry way.
So stop your whining. Just because someone did something inventive, and utilized a service used to steal music to decieve a bunch of people doesn't mean they should be attacked.
As I said, if you know BNL, you'll understand that this is just the kinds of things they do. I've been a fan since they used to busk in downtown Toronto, I have seen them in concert 11 times, own all their CDs, including the rerealeased ones, and I assure you, this is their style of humour.
laugh kids. you were tricked.
We emerge from our mother's womb an unformatted diskette; our culture formats us.
Battling Napster -- The Pearl Jam Way (Score:5)
Pearl Jam is releasing 25 "bootlegs" -- obviously not bootlegs since they're "official", but that's beside the point -- of their European tour shows. The sound quality on these things -- all of which have been pre-released to fans of Pearl Jam's Ten-Club for around US$10.98 each [for 2 CDs!] -- is fantastic -- just the right mix of band and audience so that (if you're a PJ fan) the shows are pretty damn electrifying.
Moreover, the shows are largely uncut. No post-concert fiddling -- overdubbing, editing -- they even include long stretches of applause, fan-chanting, lyric-flubbing, etc.
Now I realize this doesn't mean much if you're not a Pearl Jam fan -- and to release 25 live concerts, well, that's a hell of a lot of music.
A few of the PJ bootlegs have been "blessed" by the band as their favorites of the 25 (there are little symbols on the backs of the "blessed" concerts) so you can at least zero in on what the band considers to be their better performances (but all the performances -- at least the 10 that I've heard thus far -- are fantastic.)
But it dawned on me when I ordered 10 of these of things at once that, yeah, these are the first CDs that I've bought in over a year. And not only did I not mind spending the 100+ US$ to get the 10 concerts, but I did it with pleasure. I couldn't wait to buy these things. The thought of getting the MP3s on Napster just filled me with repulsion: I mean, not only would I not get the full concerts on Napster, but I'd have to contend with bad rips and crappy normalization by neophyte rippers who wouldn't take the time to carefully rip the tracks.
I hope all this Napster-mania puts pressure on labels not so much to get with the program and start releasing official MP3s (I mean, there is nothing drearier, in my mind, than paying $2.99 for an official MP3) but to realize that the problem isn't Napster, isn't the internet, isn't fans wanting something for nothing -- the problem is the chokehold on product.
Fans of any good band -- PJ, Springsteen, Dylan, Neil Young, you name it -- love live performances. And, yes, getting a CD of the performance is not the same thing as actually being there but my hope is that this move by Pearl Jam will make the companies realize that battling Napster -- and winning against Napster --- starts not with fucking around with stifling technology but with simply giving the fans more of what they actually want: more music and better prices.
It seems *really* simple. I wonder if anyone is inside these record companies preaching this kind of (what I assume to be) common sense. Fans want product -- and they'll pay for more product -- and because of an increased emphasis on performance (thanks to Napster) there is no excuse for not releasing more product since (for the most part) fans (and even casual fans) really dig the live stuff.
Re:Music Industry & Retail CDs != RIAA (Score:2)
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Re:Headline: BNL wins approval of CmdrTaco, (Score:2)
You mean BNL wins approval of CmdrTaco, Canada lets out a collective "Eh?"? Shome mishtake shurely :-)
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Re:A start of a parody (Score:2)
- i wouldn't have to walk to the store
if i had my million dollars
- i wouldn't have to work like a whore
but because they have my million dollars...
They are filthy rich.
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Re:"Good way to fight"...? (Score:2)
In what way is "right to be compensated" linked to capitalism? I thought capitalism was about market forces, contracts, exchanges, agreements. Not about a centralised system organising items and their values, artificially creating scarcity, which is exactly what the whole IP system is (just think how royalties are calculated).
As for my knowledge of laws, I'm not interested in what is 'currently' legal, but what is logical, or useful, or elegant. Because laws (eventually) evolve, and we can participate in the process.
Should I have to, not only pay someone, but actually ask if I'm allowed to, if I want to sing "happy birthday to you" to a baby???
What about a right to the free exchange of ideas, to the participation of everyone, even the poorest, to human's culture?
Re:They better not flood Napster from MI. (felony! (Score:3)
Bullshit. There's nothing unauthorized about it - the user who downloads it authorizes the download quite explicitly. If he doesn't get what he wanted, tough luck - Napster sure as hell doesn't implicitly or explicitly guarantee that the content of a file is what its name might lead you to expect.
Re:"Good way to fight"...? (Score:3)
I'm not talking about the wacky craziness that is some of the more recent "copyright" legislation. I'm talking about what has been accepted to be illegal (immoral?) for some time -- mass distribution of copyrighted works against the copyright holder's wishes.
That's a system design issue. If a system makes you pay again and again because you've not completed their download or lost the file, that system is bad. People will not use it (the more likely case) or decide it's worth it anyway, if the artist's works are something they really really want.
Ultimately, you're correct. There is no such divine right. There is also no such divine right mass-pass-around copies of a work. We've instituted this in the U.S. and elsewhere in order to encourage the creation of these works.
Bottom line is this: there are artists out there willing to give a system like the one you describe a try. I assume you mean what you say with your support of a voluntary payment system. If you want such a change, then get with those artists and show it can be done. You will attract more and more people. FWIW, I think that would be really cool. But I'm not going to subvert those who don't want me to in order to accomplish my goals.
Re:MP3 Spam. Oh dear. (Score:2)
So, for crying out loud, listen to the song once before you burn it. If you burn to CD without checking even for poor copy quality first, you deserve to wind up with a CD full of ads!
CD Boycott (Score:2)
I figure that I'm still boycotting, because this is a CD I would have bought 6 months ago, but it's release was pushed back.
LK
This type of battle has been suggested. (Score:2)
Remember the cuckoo MP3 [slashdot.org] incident?
<O
( \
XGNOME vs. KDE: the game! [8m.com]
Dammit (Score:2)
Re:MP3 Spam. Oh dear. (Score:2)
BNL is actually quite MP3 tolerant (Score:3)
Most of the fans downloading the song knew it was pre-release and tampered with: hell, that's *why* they downloaded it! Once word got out about it everyone wanted to hear the interruptions, transcriptions of the jokes appeared in the mailing lists and newsgroups right alongside the song lyrics, people speculated about the identity of Morpheu_10 (sp?) the source of the downloads, etc. The fans loved it, and really, who else cares? It was done wel and in good humour. A lot of bands could do this badly, but I'd like to think BNL set a good example. Not bad for a band that claims that the Internet doesn't really exist ;)
BTW: anybody who thinks they can just look at the song length is wrong. I have two different versions of the "Pinch me" ad and one is the same length as the song.
Re:But why bother? (Score:2)
Re:MP3 Spam. Oh dear. (Score:2)
Re:But why bother? (Score:3)
Re:Why bash lawsuits? (Score:2)
I maintain a copyright, and I have no problem with people asking for credit. I also don't openly support taking of someone's work if they have not expressed a desire for their work to be traded.
Then you say:
Personally, I say screw IP and keep pursuing something new
IP laws encourage people to create new work. You can't get rid of IP laws and then expect any sort of protection or reward for your effots. People should not be so quick to give up their rights, especially since the rogue distribution channels are already disintigrating.
Re:Another legal use for napster (Score:2)
So you think artists should live in poverty until the western world gets around to electing a communist government? We should be martyred for your "free art" cause while the lawyers, CEOs, accountants, middle-managers continue to pull in 5,6,7 figure salaries and have no intention of implementing a socialist state? Sheesh, talk about your deranged logic.
BTW, artists don't appreciate facists telling them how to make a living.
Re:malicious trojan (Score:2)
Remember, you never get the MP3 unless you request it.
Refrag
Re:It's all about freedom. (Score:2)
What would be really cool would be if a bunch of Slashdot users helped them with this. After all, they are being much more polite than just filing a lawsuit, and more effective, too. What would be really cool would be if they had a quarter of the song, or something, then it cut off and was replaced with the band telling the listener to go buy the CD.
-RickHunter
Re:"Good way to fight"...? (Score:3)
Actually, no one has yet come up with a reasonable justification for tearing down IP laws. They evolved quite sensibly out of the invention of printing presses, recording equipment, etc. and the evolution of the middle class. Mass-production of creative work has made it more democratic than ever, yet much of the public fails to appreciate this, thinking artists will produce polished, finished masterpieces without compensation. Without democratic forms of compensation, you have highly centralized forms of compensation (Catholic church, communist governments, corporations, the wealthy elite). You really want to give them absolute control over what gets produced?
I sure hope you enjoy your govt/church/corporate sponsored propaganda..
Why RIAA flooding would have little effect (Score:3)
I doubt that the RIAA flooding Napster, etc. with corrupt or trojan files would ultimately have much much effect in polluting the the system. The reason being that these phoney files will be immediately deleted by the downloader after discovering their nature and not left on their computers for redistribution to others. These are PEER to PEER file trading systems and Peers Won't Pass Along Phoney Files to Peers.
Therefore the only source of corrupt files will be the RIAA moles themselves, meaning they will always be a tiny minority of Napster users. In addition, known mole user handles can be publicly posted on black lists to warn people against the dubious nature of their offerings.
As for the Barenaked Ladies promotion, I think their fans will get a kick out of it, since it features some witty banter from the artists themselves (instead of just some corporate commercial) and they will actively seek it out. It could definitely ending up working in favour of promoting the BNL album. At least it is not as likely to piss their fans as Metallica's tactics in fighting Napster.
Trickster Coyote
Reality isn't everything it's cracked up to be.
Official bootlegs? (Score:2)
Heh. Sounds like something you would expect from everyone's favourite (semi-)fictious band:
New from Spinal Tap! The Official Bootleg Live Album!
Trickster Coyote
Even illusions are real.
Re:It's all about freedom. (Score:2)
I can also pretty much guarantee that this solution was a darn sight cheaper than pulling in a team of legal vultures to fire up a court case.
Malk.
Re:Let me rephrase. (Score:2)
Going back to the point of a thread in cup (I think), circa 1998 or thereabouts, regarding copy protection schemes:
The data is only as trustworthy as your users. If the system relied upon ID3 tags (or other metadata), then just fake the bloody metadata while keeping the crap contents. As the technology to inspect the data for musical content does not yet exist for practical application, how is the Napster client protect from this? I bet the record companies would love to see an trojan/exploit/virus for the various mp3 players out there...
--
Already happening (Score:2)
Apparently, you don't use Gnutella if you haven't already seen the effects talked about in this [slashdot.org] previous article. The website seems to still be down, but I don't doubt that they'll be resurrected eventually.
I really haven't used Gnutella since the first night I tried it out and found absolutely nothing interesting but SPAM and one guy's personal vendetta against someone by having each search result return a message to e-mail his victim for more about that topic. The guy kept getting flooded by people thinking he had stuff like kiddie porn and the like. That kind of nonsense permanently gave me a bad taste for the future of the network.
This is perfectly fine! (Score:2)
And the stupid RIAA should realize that people will PAY for a site that they can get music that they know is not damaged or ads.
And trying to copy-protect these files is a mistake. People will go other places to get the same music stripped of the copy protection, because the copy protection is as big of an annoyance or "damage" as an ad and thus negates the whole advantage of the pay site.
This gives me an idea! (Score:2)
Von Neumann says you're wrong. (Score:2)
Of course, these programs are poorly written and will soon cause a core dump--but that doesn't change the fact that they're still programs.
Programs are data are programs. Thus spake John von Neumann, thus ever shall it be.
Re:Perfect application for music fingerprinting! (Score:2)
No, seriously. On what grounds would they sue (unauthorized derivative works)? Presuming the folks owning the fingerprint database set it up out of the country, it'd be pretty hard to take control of anyhow.
...and even then... (Score:2)
You'd have to force people to use compliant players which check the signature of the songs you play. People won't use something like that -- even the end lusers don't want something forcing you to be online to play an MP3, and if they hear about the privacy/legal implications, so much the better.
Fingerprinting alone is a pretty harmless technology which can do a lot of good. Only when combined with quite a bit of infrastructure does it become a threat.
Re:Official bootlegs? Counting Crows perhaps (Score:2)
There are a few ftp sites that hold literally gigabytes of crows bootlegs and there have never been any legal moves by the band (or geffen) to shut them down.
Some of the collectors even got together and made a two disc boxed set of the very best of the bootlegs (in the same track order as the first two albums) and presented this to the band.
And you think perl jam selling you their for the bargin price of $10 is good... btw was that 10 dollars for 2 cds full of mp3s of $10 per concert?!