You probably have heard about it by now. You might even have friends who have downloaded the video – if you have not already. Erin Andrew ring a bell?
ESPN reporter Erin Andrew is a familiar sight to many sports enthusiasts. And I am pretty sure that there is more than one guy out there who has had not so clean thoughts about her. After all, she is really attractive, isn’t she?
Anyway, a video of her had surfaced on the Internet. Yeah, a video of her walking around in a hotel room. In her birthday clothes. Naked. Nude.
Naturally, this video quickly spread, and people from all over the world have been downloading it. So why would I say don’t download it?
Lisa Bloom, legal analyst for CBS News says that downloading the video is actually illegal. Bloom says that “it’s like buying or selling stolen property. If you know you are buying something that was stolen… you could be liable criminally and civilly.”
One reason is that the video was taken without the consent of Erin Andrew, just as it was spread without her consent. In fact, the video was apparently taken through a peephole, which is in itself a crime.
While you might not be sued, arrested, or anything like that for downloading the video, you just never know what might happen. More so, you might get a different kind of surprise – like a Trojan or some other malware that can bring you more trouble than it’s worth.
Categories: Videos
Many P2P users are still reeling from what happened to The Pirate Bay earlier this month. While I am sure that there are still a lot of sites from which you can download free content, albeit illegally, the shutdown of Pirate Bay is a major, world-rocking event. In any case, here is something that might just jar you our of your stupor.
Kazaa is back! Remember that old file sharing system that was so popular in the 90s? It made your computer slow down to a crawl at times. You got tons of viruses from the files you downloaded. But hey, you were enjoying free and unlimited content. That is, until they were shut down for copyright violations. You’re lucky to have escaped the law – unlike that woman who was fined millions for downloading off Kazaa.
So now the service is back, and guess what? Kazaa has gone legit as well! While once Kazaa was number 1 in the black book of the Recording Industry Assn. of America, it is now labeled as a legitimate music service.
The service, which is subscription based, offers more than 1 million songs from various recording labels such as Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI. Set to launch this week, the new Kazaa requires $20 for a month’s worth of unlimited downloads. The songs will be in Windows Media format, with DRM for up to five computers or devices.
The business model looks sound enough. The question is whether or not Kazaa will be able to compete with the other existing services.
Categories: Downloading Legally
Can you believe it? The Pirates are crossing over to the other side – the legitimate side. I am sure that you heard all that ruckus about Pirate Bay in the first half of this year. Every downloader in the whole world must have had their eyes glued to their computers following the developments on the Pirate Bay issue.
Now, it seems that the pressure has gotten to the company. The pirates have been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, and are going to be bought by Global Gaming Factory X, for a hefty sum of $7.7 million. The Swedish company has announced its intention to turn the iconic web site around and make it a legitimate business.
So what’s going to happen with the “new” Pirate Bay? Are people still going to be able to download content through it? The new owners say that they will still be delivering the same service. There will be one crucial difference, however: the owners of the copyrighted material will get paid.
We know what this means – downloading will NOT be free anymore. In other words, the pirates are going to be driven out of the picture. For sure, the 20 million or so users of the “old” Pirate Bay are not happy about the turn of events. However, I think that this is the harbinger of things to come. Perhaps in the near future, we might be more accepting towards legal (and maybe not always totally free) downloads.
How do you feel about the “new” Pirate Bay?
Categories: Downloading Legally, Site News
