Senators ask p2p companies to police themselves

[DudeAsInCool]

Kind of hilariouis isnt it?

[HolyMoly]

Kind of hilariouis isnt it?

Yes, it is. How can a P2P entity that employs a decentralized system (like FastTrack) police anything? It just goes to show how dense some of our lawmakers are when it comes to technology.

Incidentally, did you hear that C-Net is going to buy MP3.com and turn it into yet another legal download site? It will be interesting to see if they go the way of Napster and iTunes - requiring Windows XP - or if they go the way of Rhapsody which lets people using Win98SE (like me) access their service. If they do allow Win98SE people, I'll join as an experiment to see if they have the same security issues as Rhapsody does. And if they do, I'll send them an email telling them ... just like I did to Rhapsody. If they're strictly pay-to-download only, that's one thing. But, if they offer free listening, I'd be dubious of their ability to control downloading/burns.

As an example, Rhapsody allows free listening ... but charges you extra if you want to download a "burnable" copy. The problem? Legal software like TotalRecorder captures any digital audio signal on its way to the sound card, saving it as a WAV file at the same time you're listening to it. So much for paying a "download-for-burn" fee.

[DudeAsInCool]

I have an artist friend who made money on MP3.com. It really was the only site that catered to new artists. I hope they revise that niche.

And you're right--either people will hack the DRM controls, or they will find a way around the restrictions.