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
The music industry is really trying to crack down hard on illegal downloading. Many things have been tried but there really does not seem to be a conclusive solution on the horizon yet. Virgin Media is now stepping in and is going to try its hand at it. The Daily Record has the story:
VIRGIN Media and Universal Music are to launch an unlimited legal download subscription service.
As part of the deal, Virgin have vowed to aggressively police usage to stop the MP3 tracks turning up on file-sharing networks.
The service, which will start later this year, will allow music lovers to stream and download as many music tracks as they want from the entire Universal Music catalogue in return for a monthly fee.
Subscribers will be able to download music to keep permanently and store on any MP3-compatible device.
The Virgin Media broadband service will allow one subscription per household.
I think that this just might work. After all, the biggest reason for downloading illegally is that people do not have to pay for the material that they are acquiring. We know that this is virtually impossible unless artists start giving away their work without charging for it. The closest thing that we can get then, is to have a paid service for a relatively low price for UNLIMITED downloads. Makes perfect sense.
More good news, artists such as U2, The Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse, Duffy, and Elton John who are signed by Universal Music will be included in the roster. Currently, Virgin is still negotiating with other labels.
Categories: Downloading Legally, Music, Paid Service
No freakin’ way! Microsoft is offering a FREE download service for its latest security software? YES, you read that right. Early this week, we should be able to download the beta version of the latest to come out of the Microsoft development labs.
Dubbed the Microsoft Security Essentials package, the software is being touted by Microsoft as the complete computer security system. It is an anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-everything bad program all in one. The way it is supposed to work, it should detect, find, and then get rid of anything suspicious on your computer.
Backers of the product say that even the newest threats can be dealt with easily and quickly by Microsoft Security Essentials. It does so by immediately checking with online servers if it finds something that is even remotely suspicious, even if it does not fall under any known threat. Before the program is allowed to continue, it has to be cleared first. What about certain legit programs that might trigger the system? Designers say that it has a list of trusted sources, and will overlook activity by these.
Microsoft Security Essentials will be available for FREE download but will not be bundled with Windows 7, as this might start another spate of anti-trust issues. While we will only have the beta this week, the full version should be out by fall. At least we will have a couple of months to test the beta version and see if it actually works and if it’s better than what we are using now.
Categories: Downloading Legally, Freeware, Software
You’ve all heard the news by now. Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a 32-year-old woman from Brainerd, Minnesota was found guilty of downloading music illegally on peer to peer networks. The court fined her a crazy amount of $80,000 per song she downloaded. Summing that all up, her total fine is a ginormous $1.9m! I don’t think that anyone (unless you’re Bill Gates) will have that kind of money, do you?
Thomas-Rasset holds the distinction of being the only person charged with file-sharing issues to go to court. There have been others who have been charged, of course, but most of them settled before the case could be heard. In Thomas-Rasset’s case, she was tried in 2007 and fined a lower amount. Following the result of that initial trial, the defendant wrote a brief that was able to persuade the judge to hold a re-trial. The point was something about the jury not being given the right instructions. Unfortunately for the defendant, the second trial ended worse than the first one; much worse; about a million times worse.
Obviously, there is something not quite right here. She may have been guilty of downloading songs illegally, but is (almost) $2m the right amount that she should pay? Heck, each of the songs she downloaded probably costs about a dollar on iTunes!
Perhaps the jury is trying to make a point here. After all, it was not the judge nor the music industry that requested for the amount. It was all in the jury’s hands. Maybe Thomas-Rasset pissed them off.
Categories: Music, Site News
The news is that Sony is working on something for the PSP; not an upgrade, mind you, but a download service that will be unique to the hand held multimedia console. While the PSN Store has been accessible through the PSP (if you use remote play) for quite some time, there has not really been a unique service for it. If Sony’s plan pushes through, we just might have a treasure trove in our hands.
However, it is not all positive news as of yet. Since this is basically boils down to a rumor still, we do not know the particulars of the service. One thing that many people are concerned about is how Sony will deal with the Digital Rights Management issue.
DRM has been a longstanding bone of contention between download services and users. While more and more people are becoming open to the idea of paid download services, the use of DRM still grates on one’s nerves. What is the point of paying for a download when you cannot transfer it from one medium to another even if you own all of the gadgets you use to play them?
Another point of concern is how much Sony will be pricing its content. We already know that Sony has a propensity for pricing their products and downloadable content at a slightly higher level than other download services. If this remains the same with the new download service, it might not really fly.
I guess we will just have to wait and see. For now, we can just imagine and hope that things will be for the better.
Categories: Downloading Legally, Music, other digital players
Windows 7 has been garnering much hype, as most Windows products usually do. I don’t really understand why as we all know that most – if not all – of their releases are always riddle with bugs anyway. Anyhow, Windows 7 is the newest product in Microsoft’s long line of operating systems and they are doing something different this time around.
Windows 7 is now available for download at Microsoft’s web site. This version is called the Windows 7 Release Candidate and is free to download for everyone. Basically, those who download this version will serve as a tester for Microsoft. I am sure that a lot of people will jump to get this offer, especially since there are a lot who cannot wait to get rid of Vista.
The software can be downloaded starting now until July 2009. Those who download and install Windows 7 can run it without problems (well, problems regarding license at least) till March 1, 2010. When that time comes however, the system will shut down every two hours. The release will also expire on the first of June 2010.
I suppose that it should be okay to download Windows 7, if only to say that you are one of the first in the world to have used it. More so, if you really hate Vista that much, you can only gain from trying out a new OS, right? As for me, I think I’ll stick with my XP for now. How about you?
Categories: Downloading Legally, Freeware
Peer to peer downloading is BIG. We all know that. Music companies know that. Video companies know that as well. Yet is the activity really criminal? It is really worth pursuing a p2p downloader in court?
This is what is happening today, and the case of Joel Tenenbaum, the 25-year-old American facing charges from Sony BMG and other, is a perfect example. Tenenbaum is being charged with illegal downloading due to his activities over p2p networks. The plaintiffs allege that Tenenbaum has been downloading music illegally.
Some bright minds have taken Tenenbaum’s side and have gone as far as to defend him. One of these is Charles Nesson, a professor at the esteemed Harvard University. According to Nesson, downloading falls under fair use. Out-law has the story:
“Fairness borders copyright infringement,” said Nesson in his submission. Proving that the defendant infringed entails proving that his copying was not fair … the issue of the fairness of the defendant’s use is integral to the decision the jury must make as to whether the defendant’s actions were infringements.”
He said that that 1976 law laid out four factors which will determine whether a fair use exemption applies. These are: the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
He is making sense there, isn’t he? And I am sure many downloaders are loving it!
Categories: Music, Site News
I am pretty sure that you have heard about the ruckus that the Pirate Bay trial created. In the past several weeks, that’s all that many people could talk about; and why not? Pirate Bay has been around for so long that a lot of Internet users consider it part of the virtual landscape. Anyhow, the trial is over, and a new anti-file sharing law was passed in Sweden as a result.
Dubbed the IPRED law, it has made such a strong and positive impact on the legal downloading industry in the country. According to local reports, music sales have increased by a stupendous 100 percent in the days after the IPRED law was passed! The sales include those that were downloaded on PCs and mobile phones.
Ice News provides more details:
The Local newspaper reports that the company InProdicon is one of Sweden’s main legal file download companies. It provides around half of all downloaded music purchased within Sweden through its online and mobile phone services in conjunction with clients such as Telia, Tele2, Ahlens and MTV.
“The first week after the introduction of IPRED, sales increased by 100 percent compared to the previous weeks. I don’t know if this is only because of IPRED, but it is definitely a sign of a major change,” said InProdicon’s managing director Klas Brannstrom.
While the law and the results have a lot of implications, one thing is pretty clear to me: it seems to be effective in increasing legal downloads. I wouldn’t be surprised if more countries follow suit.
Categories: Downloading Legally, Mobile Phones, Music
This weirded me out, really. I guess it has just never occurred to me that a big company such as Google would actually offer this much. And in China?
Then again, it all made sense after I read the whole news piece. So this is what’s going on. We know that China is perhaps the leading country when it comes to piracy. And I am not talking about music and movies only. Fake bags, clothes, and everything else are made in China!
Anyway, I digressed, but China is known for being the pirate’s haven. You can find practically any movie or music album in this country. And we know that various sectors from around the world have been trying to kill this lucrative business. Apparently, their efforts have not been that effective as the piracy business in China is still thriving.
Enter Google. They have started a new service, a free MP3 download service all throughout China. The aim is, obviously, to divert those who download illegally into downloading legally. Naturally, the only way to do this is to make available media for free.
And how exactly is Google going to be able to keep the service running if they do not charge the users? The answer is simple: through ads. The service is actually being backed up by 14 independent labels, who want to make a change and yet continue earning money.
Google has been testing this service since August of last year and it looks like it could fly. However, for those of us outside China, we will not be getting even a taste of the service. And why not, I ask?
Categories: Downloading Legally, Freeware, Music
