Posted by FatKat on 09/26/05 15:51

spodosaurus wrote:
> FatKat wrote:
> > spodosaurus wrote:
> >
> >>Saul Levy wrote:
> >>
> >>>You ARE in pain!
> >>>
> >>>Saul Levy
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>Make sure to let us know when Canada becomes the 51st State, Saul (hint:
> >> don't believe your cell mate next time).
> >>
> >
> > What's the point of all this jingoism? So what if WinMX was created in
> > one country and not another? It created a network for moving data from
> > country to country, regardless of the country it was produced in or
> > where in the world it first entered the network.
> >
>
> Well, Saul took issue with someone complaining that the rest of the
> world has to suffer when P2P networks get infected by RIAA because the
> US won't reign in RIAA's abuse of the legal system.

That justifies taking a thread into the realm of flamewar? Some idiot
makes a pointless comment about nationalism and somebody else makes a
reciprocally pointless comment about nationalism? Saul, as off-base
and misinformed as he was, didn't introduce politics to this thread -
I've tried erasing national lines from the subject but apparently a few
posters are resisting that.

> People in the US
> keep electing representatives who suckle at the gangrenous teet that
> RIAA holds out for them and then they turn around and spout RIAA
> propaganda about how file sharing is costing them so much money...

Hyperbole mostly. Isn't there a NG designed specifically for P2P
discussions in general?

> when
> they know, and we know, and it has been shown repeatedly, that people
> who download music also BUY more music than any other group!

I find this hard to believe because so many people who DL can barely
bring themselves to share what they DL. Sure, it slows down their own
downloading, but we're talking 0 sharing from broadband users, DSL,
cable, T1 or even T3+. It would be hard enough to believe that genuine
sharers carrying 3000 - 5000 files are actually purchasing anywhere
near that much, but when you add in the leeches, dismissing "The Lost
Sales" argument becomes much more difficult. Even were it true, the
argument that sharers are also buyers hits a logical problem head-on
when used to defend sharing: if sharers will anyway purchase their
music, then blocking sharing doesn't really matter, and preventing
people from sharing doesn't make the industry a bunch of
gangrenous...whatever you called them. There is the argument that
people should be free to DL if only to preview music that they can buy
- but between pay DL sites, and internet radio, even the obscure stuff
should be available, making P2P obsolete...for DL'g "preview" music.
There's always broadcast radio, of course, with a decent twin-cassette
deck, even if that's so 20th century.

> There are a few rotten apples in the crowd, but overall the recording
> industry is making record sales and record profits.

Which proves what? That industries make a profit? That's the
cornerstone of western civilization - not just American. That
industries can afford to allow file-sharing? Not if the spike in
profits coincides at all with the industry's crackdown on P2P.

> Not to mention the fact that Saul started trashing other parts of the
> world in his ignorance about where WinMX and other P2P programs originated > from.

Actually, I read Saul's post, which responded to Pooter's ignorant rant
blaming America. Saul didn't really start anything and when confronted
with that, aknowledged he didn't know. Normally on this NG, those
shown (painfully) the error of their ways will change their user names
and effect a return.

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