The Legallity Of File Sharing

[clocker]

TIDE-HSV... It seems that historically, legality has always been KACHINNG! driven. When someone is making enough money off the behavior legal sanction follows sooner or later. As soon as the media moguls figure out how to exploit p2p to their own benefit ( and rest assured, they will ) this little contratemps will blow over.
ShareDaddy...Medicate to stay coherent? Is that how it's supposed to work? God, I've squandered a fortune doing it backwards then.
lunatacs...Sorry to have bored you, I realize that this thread seems to resurrect itself every couple of days. But perhaps you might take comfort in the fact that as long as NuB's(like me) keep expanding the peer base- and inevitably discussing this very question- it means that our numbers are growing, and there is safety in numbers. Ask any prairie dog ( and if he responds, refer to ShareDaddy's advice on self medication... I had it ALL wrong, too).

[TIDE-HSV]

Yep, but how long does it take? I had the same thoughts about marijuana usage over 25 years ago - and it's still illegal.

[clocker]

Hardly a fair comparison (although I can certainly see why it would occur to you) since Grandma & Grandpa and Mom & Dad and Little Bobby & Sally were hardly bonging away 25 years ago were they? The diversity of the population that a p2p crackdown would potentially criminalize is much wider than that of marijuana usage. I would imagine that even the most upright citizen could be caught with a copyrighted file ( I know my Mom is guilty&#33 and how many shots on the evening news of someone's mom or pastor or whatever being perp walked past the cameras for having an illegal copy of Bridget Jones's Diary do you think that the public would stand for? Beating the hell out of Abby Hoffman was one thing- gang banging Grandpa for DL'ing Stan Kenton is another. I hope. For Grandpa's sake.

[TIDE-HSV]

Well, I will concede some weight to some of your remarks, but I have some quibbles. For starters, the number of marijuana users in the general populace is many times larger than the number of p2p users. If you don't know that, there's little I can say that would convince you. (Anyway, I thought I recognized the same old guys around here). Also, there were a lot more kids, parents and even grandparents "bonging away" than you realize. I think where your points have some validity though, in that marijuana is a quite noticeable mood-changer (well maybe p2p is too, but it's not so obvious) and the establishment has been quite successful in presenting it as a gateway to other drugs. I'm not sure that p2p will lead us further into a life of crime. OTOH, p2p users don't advertise themselves with noticeably different appearance or behavior (OK, FC is the exception). The copywright cops have, however, been very efficient as presenting us to the congress and legislatures as greedy zealots out to tear down Mom, apple pie and - Hollywood. So there has been some demonizing of our community. If not, the laws that have been placed on the books wouldn't have been. My heart's with you and I hope you're correct, but my head tells me that the road ahead is going to be a little bumpier.

PS Their technology is also improving rapidly.

[Schmiggy_JK23]

that is is... worst comes to worse, theres always irc and newsgroups... next to nothing they could do about that.

[clocker]

Tide-HSV...Who are the old guys you're referring to? I know that there are lots of marijuana users out there, but as I remember the 60's we were called the Counterculture, a term we embraced because it set us apart from Them ( the Establishment). We wanted to be out of the mainstream and dope smoking was a way to show that ( apart from the more obvious benefits). Today p2p folk ARE the mainstream and blend in without a ripple. I wasn't kidding about Mom and Dad, I've got both of them on K-Lite and they don't even think about it. God might strike them dead should they fire up a doob, but Dl'ing a movie doesn't faze them a bit.
P.S. EVERYBODY'S technology is advancing rapidly. That's the beauty of the age we live in...control of the cutting edge is shared by a far greater % of the populace.

[MagicNakor]

Originally posted by TIDE-HSV@1 April 2003 - 22:01
...For starters, the number of marijuana users in the general populace is many times larger than the number of p2p users...

I'm not sure where you got that information from. It's certainly incorrect.

[TIDE-HSV]

Clocker, I hear you, but I'm not willing to concede that p2p people are quite as mainstream as you apparently believe. I think the technical aspects alone stand in the way. You say that your mom and dad are into it, but you also state that you have been the enabler. Would they have been into it without your help? Don't get me wrong. I wish things were as cut and dried as you have stated them. I just don't think it's true yet. I hope it becomes so. MN, do the math.

[MagicNakor]

Sure. Cite your sources.

I don't believe you have any.

[clocker]

The technical aspects?... P2P is really pretty simple (or believe me, I wouldn't be able to figure it out) and only needs to be as technical as you wish to make it. Sure, making the ultimate MP3 rip can get fairly involved ( read Paul's pinned post- I'll figure it out eventually), but just dl'ing a file and playing it back is your basic piece of cake.
Doing the math would be easier with some hard numbers by the way, but I still don't really agree with your basic premise anyway so it's a moot point to me.
"Enabler"?....Jeez, you make me sound like a pusher