Forbidden topics

I have to admit, I’m getting quite the grin out of all the huffing, puffing and righteous indignation coming from the moderators insisting that no talk take place about illegal software distribution and the like.

Come on. At best, it’s highly disingenuous.

Limewire offers a service that enables a HUGE community of software crackers to distribute their pirated programs. This forum is ferociously defended by saying that Limewire has no control over what people distribute. And I’m sure that’s quite true.

But what’s Limewire’s reason for being? People can download music all day long, never paying a cent for music they would otherwise have to pay for. People who have a 1000 song catalog never buy ANY music. And why would they when they can get it for free?

Back in the day, my friends and I used to share our albums and record them to cassettes. It was a laborious, real time process. We were limited by the time needed to baby-sit the recording process. It took a long, long time to develop a 1000 song catalog. You had to really want it. There was some effort involved…and expense (buying cassettes). And there was a practical upward limit.

With Limewire, I could have a 1000 song catalog in a day. Or less. Or fill my hard drive with bootleg programs costing 1000s of dollars.

Everyone knows what Limewire is used for. I know why you try to keep this forum “clean.” But it’s a joke, folks.

It’s like the owner of a singles bar. He knows his joint also attracts the working girls and he lets them do their thing as long as they aren’t blatant about it. He knows the hookers attract patrons and as long as they don’t leave with the guys before they’ve bought a few drinks (read: Limewire’s software fee), they look the other way. When the cops or the morality police raid the place, the owner says (with a straight face) “I don’t support prostitution. What these people do on their own time is their business, not mine.”

I just find it amusing.

Wink, wink, nod, nod.

Everybody for their own reasons but. The most music I downld are live material that is unavailable commercially. I already have 'all' of that band's albums. I can't get enough.

Music is not the only thing shared on the net. There's art in all its digital forms. Poetry, etc.

As far as music goes, as far back as recording devices were available bootleg recordings & copies were being made. And that goes long before audio cassette tapes. Just a few thoughts.

Less Paul

Very clever, very detailed and very well written but entirely your own opinion.




UK Bob

That it is, UK. That it is.

BTW…are you aware that there’s an 800 pound gorilla in the room?

;-)

Just for grins, I ran a Limewire search for “Limewire Pro” and found no dearth of cracked apps, serials and/or keygens for download.

Ironic, huh?!

Of course I know why you want to keep this forum clean.

But is very much “wink, wink, nod, nod.”

It is disingenuous at best and hypocritical at worst. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do, I guess.

I scan everything I download with Norton AntiVirus. I’ve found the occasional virus, but not many. Perhaps 5% or so. And probably 80% of the programs work just fine with a little tweaking.

I download programs to test them out before I buy them. Most factory demos are either not full function, or have a time limit of 30 days or so. The stuff I’m interested in usually has a steep learning curve.
I’m a busy guy and 30 days doesn’t cut it for me. If I’m going to drop $300 on a piece of software, I wanna make damn sure I’m happy with it before I buy.

When I’ve made a decision, I delete the also-ran programs and go buy the real deal. I want the software support and the help files that are often ripped from the cracked versions.

And I’m also a songwriter. I make my stuff available for free download and several websites. In the past few years, I’ve given away probably 1500-2000 downloads. Makes me feel better about scarfing a few songs I want to learn how to play.

I wonder how many Limewire users put something they actually created back into the pool. My guess is very, very few.

I believe Peerless & I are also 2 that can be categorised in that group of offering our own works. I'm aware of other members who do the same. But you're probably right. Particularly with those who come to LW after being attracted by a scam site that offers free downlds of multimedia after paying a subscription but end up with a free version of LW or another p2p app or some variated version of the same code.

It is truly a drag that some have been sucked into those scams.

What kind of creative content do you and peerless put out there? Just curious.

Wait. Don’t tell me. You’re software crackers!

;-)

Mostly music. We've both had experience in bands & bands creating their own music. But then, there's also video art I do. I am trained as a graphics artist (amongst other things) including multimedia.

Cool. Hope it earns you some $$$.

DOH!