Just some of the long lived music sharing sites (Blubster, EzTracks, Kazaa, etc.) that have very strong publicized control on copyrighted music but total discretion is left to the end-user. One can get music and share it for free just as long as it is completely legal? What gives, many sites for music sharing have followed suit in their file sharing disclaimer but enforcement tends to be lax and mostly nonexistent.
Most of the file sharing sites use bit torrents as the foundation of their file sharing system but some offer streaming video and music direct from company servers. Some work is truly published under the royalty free acts but mostly to get you hooked-on. Some sites offer music downloads for minimal fees (as low as $0.19 as I have looked around). This might place us back to the point when paid legal downloads are still the best source of downloads and well they still are. Paying ensures you get the best quality service and products while helping the mostly freelance people get some revenues in promoting their music talents over the internet. It might be quite steep (please don’t expect to get the latest tracks of your favorite artists for cheap prices) but hey, let us be realistic and talent does come at a price. If one opts to get the hottest music hot off the charts, try using bit torrent systems and get them from others like you who want free and hot music. Bit torrents have proven to be hard to police as many governments and regulatory bodies have found for the servers and file-sharers are dynamic meaning any sign of trouble can send the perp’s hightailing it out of the scene with a simple act as going off-line or pulling the network cable plug.
Many great and commendable music sharing sites still exist like the ones mentioned above which will continue to fuel the DRM issue but as they might already know, it is a loosing battle and the people will prevail.
Happy New Year to all.