JonesPC

I know getting things that fall into the Grey area on the internet has always been around. My first experience with those items were the Warez websites that you would run across back in the mid to late 90s. You’d stumble on a Warez site and deal with the popups and porn and eventually you will find FTP with software or video games. If you’re really lucky, you’d find a direct download link. That was soon replaced by the MP3 craze, then Napster came along and everyone was downloading music for free. Then the scene evolved and you had software like Morpheous, where not only can you download MP3’s but you can download video and software. A 1 stop shop for all of your copywrited material downloads.

The P2P scene got just as bad as the Popups back in the Warez website days and a little software application came about and changed things for ever. Bittorrent is great and stayed under the radar for so long because of its learning curve. but now that it is gotten a little more commonly used, the MPAA and everyone else are going after websites hosting torrent files also. The Piratebay being one of the main enemies of the MPAA etc, but other websites have been shut down including the most recent shutdown of Oink.

Thinking about all these shut downs made me think that it is time for a replacement. One thing about the internet is that there is always a new thing. when one thing gets old, or everyone catches on, something else thats a little better comes along. Bittorrent has been around for a while, and the wrong People (or right people depending on how you look at it) are starting to catch on.

Do I support illegal downloading?

By reading the first couple paragraphs, it looks like I am a supporter of illegal downloads, but no, I’m not a supporter of breaking any laws. I just think that the laws around all the music, movie, and television downloading are flawed right now. I don’t think things are completely finished yet, as far as how to handle things and what the laws should be. People need time for these things to get worked out. Right now the agencies that are enforcing things are going crazy. A lot of people are going to get over-fined and Over-jailed for downloading. And all of the DRM that we have to deal with when we legally download media is just not quite there yet. The industry in a whole needs to work things out. While that is going on, theres no need for people who may be borderline innocent to be paying heavy fines, or doing jail time.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some real deal piracy operations out there that are clearly breaking laws and trying to make a living doing so. But most people that download the occasional TV show shouldn’t be looking at a life sentence.