BookShare is a napster-like service that relies on volunteers to share e-books with as many people as possible, and it's completely legal. The reason? Thanks to a special carve-out in copyright law which states "if such copies ... are reproduced or distributed in specialized formats exclusively for use by blind or other persons with disabilities."
posted by mathowie on Apr 23, 2003 - 15 comments

We all knew the day would come, the time to put the "you" in P2P: Buy your own piece of Napster at their bankruptcy auction. December 11th, live and webcast, their impressive set of top o' the line (for 2001) equipment is up for grabs.
posted by mathowie on Nov 19, 2002 - 9 comments

It's official, Napster is dead as the company folds, reading to go Chapter 7. On the upside, this is possibly the best goodbye dotcom message ever.
posted by mathowie on Sep 4, 2002 - 40 comments

Congress is about to consider an entertainment industry proposal that would authorize copyright holders to disable PCs used for illicit file trading. "The measure would permit copyright holders to perform nearly unchecked electronic hacking if they have a "reasonable basis" to believe that piracy is taking place."
posted by mathowie on Jul 23, 2002 - 40 comments

Berman's P2P Hacking bill (mentioned last week) has caught the notice of a few people, and it's worth noting their suspicions. Cory from boingboing wonders why there needs to be a law for something that is on the surface, not illegal. Declan McCullagh's request for comments about the bill netted a handful of scary responses. Berman's clearly in Hollywood's pocket, but how far will he go to get his legislation passed? And what will happen once P2P hacking is legally permitted for big studios?
posted by mathowie on Jul 2, 2002 - 10 comments

mp3.com ordered to pay Universal $118 million for copying CDs to the Mymp3 service, a service designed for owners of those CDs (mp3.com made distribution agreements with the other record labels trying to sue). On the flip side, Yahoo scored a deal with the RIAA to let them webcast music. It's a wacky week in online music [via davenetics].
posted by mathowie on Sep 6, 2000 - 9 comments

Perhaps Lance was right. No maybe Peter was right. Regardless, the wheels of progress continue to turn, this time it's a p-to-p app that allows the swapping of console video games napster/gnutella-style, with the 17 year-old creator saying this about the possibility of getting shut down: "Sure, it is a concern that they may try to shut us down, despite the fact that we don't permit piracy, but I am confident in the law and believe we will prevail." Riiiiiight.
posted by mathowie on Aug 2, 2000 - 12 comments

Napster may be down, but pandora's out of the box, baby. Get OpenNap as soon as you can (if anyone finds a link to OpenNap, by all means post the URL)
posted by mathowie on Jul 26, 2000 - 35 comments

Another music artist that doesn't get it: Dr. Dre. I knew the Metallica thing could start a rash of followers, hopefully this isn't a trend. Why is it so difficult for artists to see that fans trading their music is a good thing? (including better sales of discs thanks to the people hearing the mp3's and better concert sales from fans buying tickets to see them live)
posted by mathowie on Apr 19, 2000 - 49 comments

It wasn't a question of if, but when. There's now a hacked version of napster that allows trading warez and videos (I bet every college student on a T1 is going apeshit right now).
posted by mathowie on Mar 23, 2000 - 6 comments

If you haven't tried out Napster yet, you really should. There's also a Mac port of the program (Macster) and a Linux version. On today's journey into the Napster underworld, I was rewarded with several bizarre gems. Among other things, I found a Japanese version of "Song for the Dumped" by Ben Folds Five, Tom Hanks singing "The Cowboy Song" from the epic film "Joe Versus the Volcano", and finally, a kickass acoustic version of "Everlong" by the Foo Fighters, which sounds like it was recorded from a Howard Stern radio show. You can't buy music this quirky, I'm glad there's a venue for it with Napster.
posted by mathowie on Jan 19, 2000 - 3 comments

If you haven't heard of Napster yet, check it out. This is a killer tool, a combination mp3 player and file transfer client/server. While you play mp3s, other users can download songs from your library, while you do the same from their libraries. This is a great idea but must be a nightmare for the recording industry. This could be a really cool community tool, if everyone is generous with their music.
posted by mathowie on Oct 29, 1999 - 1 comment