Skip to main content

Peer 2 Peer sharing

Recently the supreme court ruled that a company that makes software can be held accountable if it is shown that the intention of the software was for illegal use. Many other tech savvy sites equate this ruling to gun makers being responsible for gun related murders and armed robbery. I do see the similarities but I think gun violence is a far more serious crime then copyright piracy. And yet we have millions of dollars being spent to create legal boundaries on who is responsible when little Johnny downloads a song. If companies can be held accountable for creating programs like Grokster, Kazza, and Limewire then what about the companies that create FTP server and client software? What about the companies that create the old telnet bulletin board systems? Each of these are methods of transmitting software and each have been used in some form or another to pirate copyrighted material. I think this is all a waste of time because the simple truth is that if you take away the companies that create P2P software all that will be left are underground groups of individuals that will continue the work.Then who takes the responsibility when the entity that created the application is unknown or unseen. Worse yet the advancement of simple technologies to transmit data will be stifled. It is a trend I see more of lately. Companies and organizations fighting the wrong fight. The companies instead need to realize that the people they are targeting both as a friend and an enemy are un-willing to pay for a piece of media that is way over priced and in the case of music may only have one or two good songs not on the single. Some have been creative enough to take advantage of the P2P technology and are offering inexpensive downloads for music and movies, but even that is at a limit because the piece of music or the movie you just bought was really just leased. Currently if you buy a DVD or CD or even a game, for your favorite console system or PC, you own that software and it is difficult to remove it from your ownership. With current digital methods of delivery songs in your playlist have the potential to be removed, movies and games can be made un viewable. With current physical forms of media delivery you can take it anywhere and use it anywhere without any restriction. I do like the idea of being able to download my favorite songs, movies, and games but I would like to own the download. Copyrights have slowly but steadily been increased with time so something like a cartoon mouse will not see public domain longer then say a cheesy cult science fiction movie made around the same decade. Large corporations are fighting to hold copyrights to increase or maintain revenue but I don't think it can help the industries as much as it can hurt them. Just think of the possibility of great ideas silenced because it infringes copyright. It's a scary road to look down for sure but with the help of the consumers like you and me we can voice change by not using a service. In essence boycotting. That's my two cents on the whole thing anyway. Let me know what you think. Link to EFF's site on the decision

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

QR Codes

  So what are all these mixed up checker board looking things you're seeing everywhere? They are called QR codes, and they make your smart phone a whole lot smarter. Imagen you are walking through the mall and you see a poster of that new movie everyone is talking about. You want to discover more about it, but you're never going to remember the web address. Then you see the QR Code in the corner. You scan the code with your phone's camera and you are taken to the web page. All with a few taps of your fingers and none of it typing on a keyboard. Let's find out what else QR codes can do and what is needed to read them.   QR is the abbreviation for Quick Response, and was named so because the 2D bar code is meant to be decoded at high speed. It was developed in 1994 by Denso-Wave for automobile parts tracking. Since then the technology has evolved to allow much more. To use them you will have to have a camera phone and an app designed to read the QR codes. Google has pu

The Underbelly of Junk Mail

I just finished watching a report about porn junk mail on NBC's Dateline tonight and saw something that reminded me of some other business actions not allowed in the US. The story went along the line that people, family people, where receiving pornographic e-mail without asking for it. The reporter John Hockenberry then went on a journey of two continents and 4 cities to trek down and confront the actual person that send the e-mail. I found it interesting that even though each piece of mail is identified with a code that shows you who sent the mail, no one wanted to correct the problem. Through Mr. Hockenberry's trips to Toronto, Las Vegas and Montreal He came across companies that did not have a physical listing. At the same time he found that several companies employed the same people even though they know they are breaking policies set by the company. This is all fine and well and I do think that junk mail is a part of business that laws have turned there back on. What I don

Icon Sushi

It isn't often that I come across a program that I think deserves to be mentioned. So often they miss the mark. Some programs will be intuitive and easy to use but lack the power or ability to do anything effective. Other times the application is powerful and give the user limitless potential but requires classes or several books to just learn how to use. This little application is one such wonder that makes it easy to use but just misses the mark on ability. That said I still like this programme. The first thing that sets this application apart is the ability to use PSD, PNG, BMP, EXE and ICO formats. Have a picture you want to crop and make an icon? you can do it with the standard windows paint program and Icon Sushi. Have an avatar or logo you spent hours in Photo Shop with to get alpha and transparency just right? you can open it in Icon Sushi and translate the work into icon form. It has the ability to create icons without sacrificing quality. It also has the ability to add al