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chmorley

macrumors 6502a
Jan 2, 2002
602
2
Denver, CO
Aquisition

A new version of Aquisition was released yesterday. You can get it by clicking here.

More and more people seem to like it.

Chris
 

Taft

macrumors 65816
Jan 31, 2002
1,319
0
Chicago
Not just for stealing.

Originally posted by SPG
Nice. Just steal everything. Anyone know where I can get a lockpick, switchblade and gun?
I don't shed too many tears for MS, major record labels, or Hollywood but some of my buddies making smaller films and sports videos are starting to feel the impact of file swapping.
Can I come over and steal your computer?

While I'd agree that these technologies have potential for doing bad, they have a ton of legitimate uses, too. I hate when people take a narrow-minded view of these wonderful technologies.

I use carracho as a way to transfer files to friends (no, not warez or illegal music) and as a chat server for my Mac buds. Its great for that and you don't have to worry as much about permissions on your machine or server and interface setup as you would with web serving or ftp.

I use Limewire and Audiogalaxy for previewing music all of the time. Technically this is illegal, you got me. But take this as an example: I'm a young guy, so I don't always know about older artists that I might enjoy listening to. I saw some VH1 special where musicians were naming their influences. Joni Mitchell came up and I enjoyed the 15 seconds of her songs they previewed on the program. But I really didn't want to buy the album based on just that. I went to Amazon and had the same problem. So I went to Audiogalaxy and downloaded four of her songs (cuff me and haul me away!). A week ago I bought her hits album based on those four songs.

Sure, I suppose I broke the law, but I later remedied this and put money in Ms. Mitchell's pocket. And I more than likely would not have purchased the album had I not had a good way to taste the album (not leterally, of course).

Or how about albums lost? I lost a CD (which I still have the jewel case for, BTW) and didn't want to replace the whole album. Since I technically own the album, I went out and downloaded a few tracks from the album.

How about legitimate file sharing? How about musicians trying to get their music noticed (myself included). Or artists? Or software authors (shareware and such)?

There is a lot of good that can come with file sharing technologies. Why not treat them like every other invention, innovation, new idea, or product from the last century rather than blast them or try to shut them down?

No more knives (they can be used for murder!). No more video cameras (they can be used to illegally film people/things!). No more photocopiers (all those illegal copies of books and mags!). No more drain cleaner (it can be used to illegally kill a neighbors lawn in a pattern to represent an obscene gesture!). No more money (you can bribe politicians!). Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

I really don't understand where people are coming from in trying to outlaw technologies. People are always going to do evil and break the law. And the more technologically advanced our society gets, the easier it will be to do bad things (primarly because people will have more options in how to perpetrate those crimes). Instead of trying to prevent people from using new technologies to break the law by limiting those technologies, why not punish people like you would with any other crime and try to take away a person's incentive to commit the crime as we would do with any other crime.

This is obviously just my opinion, but I think we need to take a look at why we are treating technology differently than we do most other products and innovations. Lets not listen to the record companies and movie studios! Approach the problem from a direction other than killing technologies, innovation and personal freedom! Educate people that stealing a CD via the internet is no better than shoplifting. Create a real enforcement effort aimed at pirating. Be realistic in the behaviors of people when considering such efforts (unlike our anti-drug efforts--a matter for a different rant and forum).

My 4.5 cents.

Matthew
 
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