RIAA story is here.
It looks like the RIAA might be willing to drop a subpoena if the offender deletes all copyrighted MP3s, and destroys all CDs they may have burned.
CD price story here.
Universal Music plans to cut their MSRP for new CDs to $12.98 - currently it's gone as high as $18.98.... as anyone who's been in a music store lately probably knows.
So, the RIAA is going with brute force and scare tactics to try to get people to buy their music, while Universal is dropping CD prices to come to the same end.
Funny thing is, it's been shown that in the time since the RIAA announced their Gestapo-like plans to sue file-swappers,
even though downloading has decreased by 22%, the drop in music sales ACCELERATED, instead of slowing.
What do you think? Does the problem rest with P2P programs, CD prices, or maybe the fact that music is just SUCKING lately?
Crappy music. There really aren't that many cds out there worth buying.
On a related note. Remeber before Napster, when $15 was a cheap sale price for a cd even when the cost of producing one miniscule? Notice how fast the recording companies dropped their prices after that. $10 for a cd was unheard of a few years ago. Now because we can download them, consumers have forced record companies to be more customer friendly.
regardless of what RIAA does, or who downloads, my technical opinion is that any P2P sharing is dangerous. Napster, Kazaa, WinMX....they're all the same. They leave your computer vulnerable. Basically, you're opening up ports on your computer that any half-assed hacker could use to tap into your computer.
With all the computer virii and theft identity going around, do you really want to risk it? Spend the $15 and buy the fuckin CD or borrow your buddy's and copy it.
I have a few clients that I do some consulting and support for. They all have used a p2p and they ALLL have been hacked. I put up just about every program possible - zonealarm, norton firewall, spybot, adware, pest control, and yet they still get through...why? the damn p2p programs bypass them and leave a door open. It's come to the point where if my client is using p2p, I recommend they shut it down or I refuse to work on it.
okay - I'll get off my soap box now....
(insert short joke here- deeks)
i dont know why you people are always getting viruses. you want to know how many viruses i've contracted since having a commodore 64 way back when.
one.
thats right one. i use P2P, i download music, i download warez from people i know and can trust.
its common sense people, dont take candy from strangers.
And don't buy coke from an Ecuadorian named Leo on the corner of 9th and West...
What?
keister - it's not the virii that's the main issue with p2p. It's the open port entry into the computer's memory that's the problem. Virii make themselves very evident. Their intent is to be malicious and obvious but a TCP/IP probe or an BIOS probe or a FTP probe.....if you were a non-techie (as most people are), would you be able to tell if someone sent one over and had their hand in your cookie jar?
best possible solution is to not use p2p to avoid it.
Quote:Originally posted by Grumpy
keister - it's not the virii that's the main issue with p2p. It's the open port entry into the computer's memory that's the problem. Virii make themselves very evident. Their intent is to be malicious and obvious but a TCP/IP probe or an BIOS probe or a FTP probe.....if you were a non-techie (as most people are), would you be able to tell if someone sent one over and had their hand in your cookie jar?
best possible solution is to not use p2p to avoid it.
That was one of the things that scared me about playing Socom online. They wanted me to open the DMZ on my pc and ps2 to fix a problem I was having. I tried opening the specific TCP and UDP ports they asked me to, but to no avail. Instead of risking my security and opening the DMZ, I just got a different router.
Quote:\"a TCP/IP probe or an BIOS probe or a FTP probe.....if you were a non-techie (as most people are), would you be able to tell if someone sent one over and had their hand in your cookie jar?
i'm sure these ports have been open on my computer at one time or another, and I still have never acquired a virus. i think its morons who download attachments on emails from people they dont know that get the majority of viruses, and they deserve it because of their stupidity.
Most ports don't do much apart from passing the traffic from the program that uses them.
It's the common ports, especially Windows ports, that are vulnerable. 135-139 are big ones. The Blaster worm attacked 135 (RPC port). For an example of something program-specific, the SQL Slammer attacked the MS SQL Server port, 1433.