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Originally posted by Unregistered
I don't see it that way because there are too many good free clients out there they can switch to in a minute and keep on sharing. In the end we lose no one.
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Why should they have to switch in the first place? All Gnutella clients, regardless of which company developed it, needs to have complete and total access. I didn't want to bring up the KaZaA/Morpheus dispute, but there are certain similarities with these two debates.
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I think it's bad to do that to your users, so I choose to block them and refuse to contribute to their product, even if it's "indirect".
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You think it's bad to do
what to users; serve them advertising or block their clients?
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All political change requires sacrifice.
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Oh, now this is interesting. Please don't tell me that the existence of the OpenSource p2p Net is the direct result of politics at play. Because Gnutella and politics
should not mix. It's neither any of my business or interest to know what political agenda you subscribe to, but I don't think that it needs to play a role in the future of Gnutella. Gnutella is above all that; Gnutella is a statement of freedom. Let's keep it that way.
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It's my view that if Gnutella started off with a rule of no pay for clients (with hindsight), the free clients would have been at this point much sooner and more people would be using/supporting them. Now that the CPU cycle and file suport is going to enrich the pay for clients, they can advertise, hire people to spread the word, and so on which disadvantages the free clients.
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We need choice. Whether it be commercial or free, it's my view that the more clients we have, the better.
If more people would be using/supporting free clients, why are LimeWire and BearShare so popular? Correct me if I'm wrong, but LimeWire and BearShare, to my the best of my knowledge, have not been advertised extensively. LimeWire is a multi-platform client, which has led to it's popularity. BearShare locates more nodes faster, which has led to it's popularity. It's the program features, not just the marketing, that has led to each respective program success.
I also found it interesting that you mentioned free clients are being disadvantaged. As they are
free, they are not in direct competition with anyone. They exist primarily to enrich file-sharing, and offer choice.
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I don't think it is. We couldn't modify this client to give people this choice without it being open source. And we give out the source of our modifications, and that would be considered under the GPL.
Open source & GPL is about the source code and how authors can restrict it's use, not user choice or what the program does.
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I disagree. The term OpenSource carries huge weight with it. It also carries responsibility.
You have termed the Network, not just the Client, as OpenSource. The Network is NOT Open. It is a private, members-only, exclusive network. Thus, this is a misuse of the term.
Yes, GPL is about the licensing of the program. But I didn't mention the term GPL. I'm talking about OpenSource. OpenSource reflects an image of freedom and equality. It's more than a license agreement, it's a manner in which we choose to conduct ourselves.
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You have the choice to use your open source word processor to create flyers trying to stop people from going to a particular store or business if you didn't like what that business does.
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That doesn't mean you can use an OpenSource kiddy-hack script to shut down a store or businesses e-commerce server if you don't like what that business does. The argument you have just used entitles you to use your OpenSource word processor to create some Anti-Profit websites.
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If you are talking about the name, the clients on the network are open source code and free to use, thus the name.
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I don't buy it. It's called the OpenSource P2P Network. It's misleading.
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Blocking is also good for those who create a college network LAN that doesn't connect to the outside internet by accident. If a sysadmin sees too much outside traffic he may choose to block access completely.
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Gnucleus offers a LAN edition. Check it out at
http://www.gnucleus.net/general/download.html.