The mood among campus file-swappers - students are growing increasingly perturbed

CNET ^ | May 14, 2003, 4:00 AM PT | Sumir Meghani

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Info on : iTunes music store

[MattinNJ]

Could any FReepers help a technologically challenged FReeper. I want to be able to make custom CD's so that I can listen to my favorite music while working out. Rather than buy 50 CD's and tape one or two songs off of each I would rather just download the songs that I want. I do not mind paying for the songs. Unfortunately, I don't know what website to go to or what equipment I would need (CD burners? programs? etc...)

I would ask a teenager, but I am too embarrassed. Thanks in advance.

Yes, I am the kind of guy who has a VCR that still blinks 12:00 since I bought it.

[gaelwolf]

So interesting to see the myriad ways in which P2P file downloaders use in justifying their theft of intellectual property. After all, it's just a little theft, so that should be OK...why are the record labels and most established artists so upset? It's not like they're not making enough money to live on or anything...

Theft is theft, kiddies, whether it's a dollar you're not paying for a song or a billion if you're Saddam and his kids.

On the other side of the line, the strangle-hold that the record labels have on their artists is another onerous aspect of the corporate machine. If you're not known, you can't get on their gravy train. If you're not mega-big, you only tend to get tossed enough crumbs to keep you alive...but not much more.

There's plenty wrong with that picture, too.

About all this P2P snarlyguster is ever likely to get us is more and more aggravation, along with more and more technological collateral damage.

[m1911]

"This is not a group to alienate."

Yeah, god forbid that a business would alienate thieves.

[Hans]

'What we have here is a failure to communicate.'
Someone is threatening to say No, the children can't
tolerate that.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Check out the Apple offering:

Apple offers downloads of 200,000 songs at 99 cents each, with unlimited CD burning and iPod transfers--among the most liberal licensing terms to date.

[WSGilcrest]

Here's a couple of places to start:

http://www.zeropaid.com/
http://www.cdrfaq.org/
http://homerecording.about.com/cs/burningcds/


Feel free to FReepmail me with any questions.
~Stu

[VRWCmember]

... attempt by the record labels to infringe on their legitimate right to make copies of digital media.

how dare the record labels try to protect their property rights or prosecute those who steal it!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks!

Got to check these out also!

[Brett66]

You'll need a CD burner to make your custom music CD. Windows XP supports use of CD burning, you just drag and drop your choice(s) onto the drive and it records them. You'll probably need 3rd party software to convert native CD audio files from .mpeg's.

[1rudeboy]

Suck it up. Ask a teenager. Think in terms of what you will learn, and not in terms of potential embarassment.

[shempy]

I highly reccomend kazaalite for downloading music files. You can find it at http://www.kazaalite.com

And you will also need a cd burner. They are pretty cheap and easy to use these days. And since blank cds are so cheap you don't have to worry if you mess a few up figuring it out.

Of course, I don't want to encourage you to do anything illegal. But you will be surprised at the amount of independent, non-copyrighted material that is out there.

[1rudeboy]

Besides, you shouldn't be afraid of appearing stupid. A teenager already thinks you're stupid.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Once you get a CD-RW drive to burn CDs a good program for doing it is Nero Burning Rom 5.9. It is the easiest to manipulate. You never even need to use any other functions outside of the Wizard.

[libravoter]

Yeah, god forbid that a business would alienate thieves.

It's a rare business whose theives are the same as its customers. It's also a rare successful business that pisses off its customers.

I find the analogies used by both sides to be inaccurate.

[ikka]

how dare the record labels try to protect their property rights or prosecute those who steal it!

You have the legal right to copy your CD onto any other media as long as it is for your own use. So if I rip mP3s of my CDs and play them on my machine I am well within my rights to do so.

And by the way, copyright does not equal property rights - they are handled quite differently under the law.

[VRWCmember]

You have the legal right to copy your CD onto any other media as long as it is for your own use. So if I rip mP3s of my CDs and play them on my machine I am well within my rights to do so.

That is a good point, but file swapping is a different matter. Just like your purchase of a copy of software does not allow you to install that copy on every PC in the college dormitory, your purchase of a music CD does not permit you to make a copy of it available for everyone else in the dormitory to download onto their PC's.

As for the difference between copyright and property rights, the copyright protects intellectual property. The owners of the copyright have the right to be compensated for the use of their intellectual property. File swapping allows people to acquire/use that intellectual property without compensating the owner. Whatever other terms you may wish to use to sugarcoat this, it is still stealing.