Grokster shuts down
November 7, 2005 2:26 PM Subscribe

Grokster shuts downafter their Supreme Court defeat [pdf] this summer, Grokster has chosen to settle its case with MGM et al., admit to wrongdoing, and stop distributing its software. Their website now displays the message: "There are legal services for downloading music and movies. This service is not one of them.". Another victoy for Hollywood in the intellectual property war. Who's next?
posted by falconred (32 comments total)

Because you know, if recent history has taught us anything, it is that closing down file sharing stops peer to peer trading DEAD.
posted by meehawl at 2:31 PM on November 7, 2005

Newsfilter: NYT front page.
posted by about_time at 2:38 PM on November 7, 2005

The long-range view seems obvious: File traders start using anonymous, decentralized P2P networks on a large scale. Having more money and influence, media corporations buy enforcement of laws to make said anonymous use of the Internet illegal, which boils down to the government scanning network traffic at all routing points in the name of curtailing "terrorist activities", with the bonus of putting the profitable kibosh on piracy and seditious speech.
posted by Rothko at 2:39 PM on November 7, 2005

Bummer, score another one for the greedheads in the ivory towers.
posted by fenriq at 2:39 PM on November 7, 2005

Does this ivory tower have any vacancies? I want in; it's awful dreary out here.
posted by xmutex at 2:48 PM on November 7, 2005

"Congratulations, Team America... you have stopped NOTHING!"
posted by BobFrapples at 2:56 PM on November 7, 2005

Thank God. I feel so much safer knowing that Ashley Simpson tracks will be slightly harder to aquire for a brief period of time. Anything to stop the spread of her music. Anything.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:58 PM on November 7, 2005

As long as a certain small, unnamed and indie-hipsterish P2P network continues to fly under their radar, I'm happy.
posted by ori at 2:59 PM on November 7, 2005

Joey, duuuuude, its Ashleeeeeeee Simpson. See, she's gotta be cool and go with the double E rather than the ey because that didn't make edgy enough for her target demographic.

xmutex, yes, but the cost of entry is your soul. Still interested?
posted by fenriq at 3:12 PM on November 7, 2005

When was the last time anyone used Grokster, anyway?

A++++ GREAT RULING! WOULD LITIGATE AGAIN!
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:30 PM on November 7, 2005

Grokster should have shut itself down before now. It was crap.
posted by fire&wings at 3:41 PM on November 7, 2005

Napster is down.
Grokster is down.

That just leaves SoulSeek, eDonkey, BitTorrent, Dexter, EarthStation 5, FileTopia, GNUnet, MUTE, Scour, Freenet, Gnutella, Kad, FastTrack and a heap of others.

I guess the only practical outcome of this is that there will always be openings for enterprising young programmers with a fresh new P2P network idea.
posted by spazzm at 3:44 PM on November 7, 2005

I work at home, and my PC is my business. The few experiences I've had with Grokster and other sites were all bad. (Spyware, lousy compression etc.) It's mostly for safety/security reasons that I tend not to take a chance on downloads any more - certainly not because of the efforts of Captain Copyright and his Do-Gooder Army of correspondence school lawyers. Still, it's nice to know that if I really wanted to wait an hour for an insanely compressed torrent of a Battlestar Galactica episode, I could. Isn't that what freedom's all about?
posted by slatternus at 4:25 PM on November 7, 2005

And don't forget Limewire, spazzm. I know I don't.

Oh, wait, does the FBI read this site?
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:25 PM on November 7, 2005

"victoy" or dearth!
posted by jmccorm at 4:59 PM on November 7, 2005

This is a great thread in which to ask, (thus saving me from using up my AskMeta for this week) where can I download audio books? None of my quasi-legal P2P sights provide this.
posted by snsranch at 5:04 PM on November 7, 2005

Plenty of audio books are available via bittorrent... or so I hear.
posted by insomnia_lj at 5:11 PM on November 7, 2005

Plenty of audio books are available via bittorrent... or so I hear.

Oh, rally? One could read a lot into that statement.
posted by Sparx at 5:31 PM on November 7, 2005

Eh, I'd rather have someone with the vision of Rothko to keep an eye out on things like this than to have authorities get away with it because no one thought of it at the time.
posted by klangklangston at 5:41 PM on November 7, 2005

Pardon me for not being the slighest bit sympathetic. Grokster's business model involved making money from the work of musicians and other artists without compensating them in the slightest.

What did they expect to happen?
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 6:29 PM on November 7, 2005

"What did they expect to happen?"

How about that the record companies would at least give consumers a reach around as they bend us over without using any lube? Or are we supposed to just shut up and 'enjoy' the ride? And, no more whining about the artists. They are either getting raped just as bad or are part of the whole corrupt machine.
posted by UseyurBrain at 6:54 PM on November 7, 2005

Wait.

People used Grokster?
posted by wakko at 7:04 PM on November 7, 2005

Grokster's business model involved making money from the work of musicians and other artists without compensating them in the slightest.

Just like a record company!

Grokster didn't get shut down for infringing copyright; they got shut down because they wouldn't collude with the music industry's price-fixing scheme.
posted by Mars Saxman at 7:31 PM on November 7, 2005

Audiobooks: Usenet - check the audiobooks category at newzbin.com for a current listing. Grokster: who cares?
posted by Onanist at 8:26 PM on November 7, 2005

Pardon me for not being the slighest bit sympathetic. Grokster's business model involved making money from the work of musicians and other artists without compensating them in the slightest.

They're kind of like the RIAA in that way.

Seriously, do some reading on the economics of the music industry, and then come back here and tell us how P2P (known in some circles as "the free advertising that drives attendance at my concerts, which is the only place I make any money") hurts actual musicians.

Or were you trying to get us to shed a tear for the plight of the poor underpaid and underappreciated music executive?
posted by gd779 at 8:39 PM on November 7, 2005

Damn, Mars beat me to the punch, didn't he?
posted by gd779 at 8:40 PM on November 7, 2005

The ruling is fine with me. I've already been to the "buffet table" a few too many times already.
posted by ironisokratic at 8:54 PM on November 7, 2005

I'm just waiting for someone to bring a lawsuit against Microsoft for producing Outlook Express. You know, that piracy-enabling software that lets you obtain copyrighted materials from the Usenet network?
posted by Jimbob at 9:05 PM on November 7, 2005

Man, I've tried using the Usenet, but I just can't figure out the damned thing. Odd file structures, where to subscribe... I know that there are mp3 communities out there, but I'll be damned if I can figure out how to make them work. I had an easier time with them when they were BBSes.
I just have to get friends to YSI stuff to me now, which means I get a broader shot of music, but I don't necessarily get what I want right away. There's enough music out there though, that I don't want for sounds...
posted by klangklangston at 9:39 PM on November 7, 2005

One of the articles about this says:

"the problem with decentralized networks is that they're impossible to shut down."

The problem? that's the beauty of decentralized networks,
posted by signal at 2:06 PM on November 8, 2005

via bittorrent I found audible.com. I heard of it before on NPR but never put 2 and 2 together. Gracias.
posted by snsranch at 4:44 PM on November 8, 2005

« Older more flickr fun... | What would you do with $100 mi... Newer »

This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments

Grokster shuts down November 7, 2005 2:26 PM Subscribe

Grokster shuts down
November 7, 2005 2:26 PM Subscribe