Limewire asks for donations to support software development, yet I see no effort on their part to support artists whose work they help people steal?

That is an old argument. Do you blame gun manufacturers when someone is shot? Do you blame car manufacturers when someone gets run over? Why not blame the manufacturers of CD burners and CD players too! Do you want computers outlawed because certain people make viruses? Did you know that the IRS actually expects people to report what they make from a garage sale! So if you don't report it, are you stealing from them too? Then should we ban magic markers because people use them to make garage sale signs? Lets face it, if I buy a CD, I should be allowed to make copies or transfer it to my hard drive. Just like I can make a copy of a cassette tape. The music industry tried to get a chip into every cassette recorder to prevent people from copying copywritten tapes. It was not allowed because the process made a difference in the sound quality. That would violate the rights of the artists. However, mpeg encoding does far more damage to the sound quality, so why is it allowed? Why are artists not complaining about their rights on that? Even CD's don't capture all the nuances of a performance. The fact is, most people don't notice and/or don't care. Remeber too that the music industry promised to lower the cost of CD's long ago, but they never did. So they have been ripping us (and the artists) off for years. There is FAR less cost in making a CD than a cassette tape or even a vinyl record. AOL is notorious for GIVING away CD's every day! So you know they are really cheap to make. I realize it is the content we pay for, but every song being shared on gnutella clients was PAID for by somebody. Do you want to pay whenever you let your friends listen to your CD's? Why can anyone record music off the radio for free? Should that be banned too? Artists want to be heard, so radio is good, even if some people record from it. The fact of the matter is that most of the music being shared is top 40 stuff, which is all over the radio and out of style in two weeks anyway. The music industry targets teens, who have less money to spend on music than anyone else, so sharing is a given. Gnutella simply makes this sharing more visible, but it did not cause it.

I can't tell you how many times I have wanted to buy the music I have discovered through file sharing clients, only to find it unavailable or over priced. I WILL NOT pay 15-20 bucks for one song I want on a CD. I would however be glad to buy a custom CD which contains only music I have chosen. The technology is already in place, but licensing such a thing meets a dead end at the hands of the music industry. Gnutella has brought me so much music I have never heard before, because radio stations won't play it, and a mountain of CD's would cost a king's ransom. I would gladly pay for high quality NON-COMPRESSED audio files direct from the artists or record labels, but we will likely never see the day when they agree to that. They have had far too much control for far too long. Every artist can now have their own Web site and distribute music without the record labels at all. That is what should happen, and will if the industry does not get a grip on the reality of gnutella. Napster WAS a golden opportunity for the record industry. There were tons of users ready to be converted to paying customers. But instead of cashing in, the labels just wanted Napster to die, so they could continue with the same old routine, who's time has passed. I don't want to spend time searching for the music I want. I'll pay, but only if I get to choose. I want samples of every song, and I want to pick and choose the songs I want. I also want to download them, with a choice of formats. I don't want to pay extra for shipping, and waiting, when I can have it with a click of the mouse. If it was all that easy (and it can be), artists would be happy, and so would the public. However, gnutella is here to stay. It may morph into something else, but it will always be. Asking it to just go away will not make it so.

Nor should they.

LimeWire only provides a servent. The servent is designed to connect to the Gnutella network and share files. That's all it does. What files people share with it is not any of their concern. All LimeWire LLC should be concerned about is that LimeWire continues to connect to the network and continues to share files between other hosts on the network.

Excellent response...

Actually, it's not the fault of p2p technology, it's the fault of the mp3 players rather than the limewires/napsters/morpheii of the world. I have a *very* small label in NYC called NeuroPop, and Music City selected two of my artists to be featured on their web site -- which I was glad to do because they (supposedly) have a secure file format which allows users to download a song, listen to it a few times, then select whether or not they want to purchase it (I've tried to price our mp3's at $0.25 each... we'll see if they let me).

If mp3 players were set up to check this stuff to begin with

BTW -- artists get paid from radio play through the magic of ASCAP. BMI, & SESAC... It is *not* free. It is sponsored.

crap... didn't finish -- as I was saying

I really think the focus should be on MusicMatch, Soundjam, etc. They're the ones with the technology to monitor songs as they're being ripped (they already check the CDDB for info...), and they're the ones that could report back each time a song is played. They should switch over to a combination of radio (where advertisers pay)/a la carte (wherein you pay for individual songs) business models, and everybody could sleep soundly.

Any thoughts on why they've gotten away so easily?

That is true, but what I mean is anyone can record off the radio without shelling out each time. The cost is indirect. And so it is when we pay for a song, then share it. Let's also not forget that movie channels play movies without commercial interruption. So I can record a movie to watch again for free. Pay Per View is probably highly recorded too, but none of this has slowed down hollywood. In fact, it's bigger than ever, and people STILL flock to theaters to watch, and buy overpriced popcorn and posters. So who looses? Although VCR's are designed not to copy protected tapes, movie channels give it all away, and nobody is complaining. Why aren't film makers and such all over this like the music industry is over file sharing? Does it make any difference how I get my free copy? Sure, I pay to receive the channel, or rent the movie, BUT I ALSO PAY FOR THE MUSIC CD before I share it! In either case, I pay once, then use it as I like.

BTW - hope it all works out with your 25¢ mp3's.

Holy sh** are you serious? Do you not give a crap about people's privacy? Do you really think people would be happy with having their media player "phone home" with details of every song they listen to?

Look around these boards a bit and see just how much people hate spyware. No one wants a Big Brother. If the entertainment industry reams something like that through, it will be a dark day. Incidentally, the CPPBA can shrivel up and die..

This has nothing to do with me supporting piracy, and I hope your business works out, but you will never look over my shoulder.