The Cynic Says……

here’s one opinion on the matter
Grokster Ruling Delights Entertainment Industry

Basically the supreme court ruled that in fact peer-to-peer filesharing networks can be sued if the users on them are sharing illegal files. Supposedly, they can only be sued if the networks in question have not taken any measures to stop people from sharing illegal files and are basically “promoting its use for copyright infringement”. Seems to me that the MPAA and RIAA are losing money out the ass and trying everything imagineable to recover some of their lost assets. Well, here’s a tip…. how about having artists put out CD’s that are more than just one or two decent songs and 12 songs of worthless filler bullshit? Sorry, but I’m not paying $17 for a CD that has two good songs on it. Not to mention I don’t even own a CD player anymore. I’d have no problem purchasing music if the music was actually worth purchasing. Granted, some online music stores have started to crop up now that actually allow you to purchase just one or two songs off a given CD but the big problem there is that there is still a decent portion of music that isn’t available digitally. Not only that, there’s restrictions on some of the music (mostly the “subscription” type) that says you can only use it on a certain number of PC’s, can’t burn it to CD if you want, etc. Also, if I’m going to purchase music online, I’d prefer it to be in something like FLAC because it’s completely lossless and true CD quality stuff. As it is, Yahoo offers the best quality @ 192kbps WMA. I did purchase one track off Yahoo Music for $0.79 because it was a great song and an artist I really liked. Also, it was the only way I could transfer it to my portable mp3 player. However, it still says it is “protected content” in the license info screen. I bought the music, why is it protected and from what is it protected? Am I not free to use do as I please with the song? As such, I think that’s still the issue with purchasing music online. It’s still not as “free” as buying a CD. Also, what if your hard drive crashes? You have to buy all your music all over again if you haven’t managed to back it all up. Ouch!