after dealing with the javaw problem, (which, by the way, i am curious why it is nessassary to load yet another program into my computer and not even know why) i am getting connected to limewire but not with the normal amount of hosts. before, i got an average of 2 thousand hosts, now only about 2 hundred. i see that other people are not even getting in at all, so i guess i am doing better than that. is the system still having bugs? does the release of 1.5 have something to do with the problems? my 1.5 seems to be working fine.except for the lack of hosts. i generally leave my computer on and connected to lime wire so as to help the system, is this more helpful now? i really prefer limewire over bearshare. with all the problems with napster, i fear that gnutella may be next in the sights of the record companies. i hope this problem is not the beginning of the end.

Hmm, do you know anything about what gnutella is??? Well, it doesn't sound as if you do. Gnutella does not have a central server, so it cannot be shut down. It makes everyones individual computer a server, and the only thing the record companies could do is possibly try to convince the gov't that this software itself should be illegal. Now I think we should all know that is not going to happen. They can't very well march into all of the probably millions of gnutella users houses and demand that they erase it. That would be ridiculous to even try. Anything that doesn't have a "gnutella" label is what you should be worried about. Napster is being shut down because they actually have something TO shut down. All of those other non-gnutella clients are going to be next. Gnutella cannot be stopped.

Actually, it is possible for the Gnutella network to be targeted by the RIAA, or any other organization. Statistically, 3% of Gnutella users provide over 50% of all the materials found on the network. With a little programming knowledge, it is possible to see what users are doing on the network (illegal or not, it can be performed nonetheless). After monitoring the pings and pongs being sent between gnutella users, IP Addresses can be harvested that have been shown to be hosting large amounts of copyrighted materials. Although a computer's IP address changes every time a user dials up with an ordinary ISP, some user's IP address remains constant. These would include most T1, Cable, and DSL users. There is an option with some service providers that allows dynamic IP Addressing, which changes your IP address every once in a while to avoid unauthorized access. Once the IP address has been obtained, it can be traced to a service provider. If the organization and the service provider cooperate, the name, address, e-mail address, etc. of the use can be matched with the IP Address. Then they could easily issue cease and desist orders (I'm not sure if I said that right, so correct me if I messed up). If individuals don't comply, the RIAA can be sued.

So, if the RIAA wanted to track the gnutella network and try to weed out all of the "illegal users", they could theoretically wipe out the gnutella network. But looking at things realistically, you will see that there are tens of thousands of users. According to LimeWire.com, there are currently (at the time of this post) about 40,000 hosts on the network. That is, of course, only representing the number of hosts that are "viewable" within LimeWire.com's search horizon. There are most likely many users than this number shows, and no matter how hard the RIAA worked, they would have very little impact on the network. The network constantly changes, grows, evolves, and new users are joining faster than Intel is releasing Blue Man commercials (did you know they spent $300,000,000 on those stupid light-bulb sucking excuses to buy a pentium 4?). Anyways...

Some have already tried to make ISPs block known "offenders." Nearly all (if not all) have denied such demands, saying that it limits a user's freedom of speech or some other intelligent excuse. I feel sorry for any ISP caught in this situation. They feel much like a go-between, and they are expected to show the RIAA some results.

Later Everyone!

True true. The difference, though, is that say, with napster, there was and is an actual company that can be shut down. Not on gnutella. There would be no frivilous lawsuits here. Who on this network has millions of dollars? I seriously doubt anyone does. And what is the solution if they do find an IP address that shares a lot of copyrighted material? Ban them from the internet? File a criminal suit? Throw them in jail? And even then, that won't stop everyone. Where did you get that "statistic" from anyhow?

On this page are several links to technical papers that have been published about the Gnutella nerwork. I referred to these to get my information. I guess I should have given this link in the previous paper. Enjoy!

http://www.limewire.com/index.jsp/tech_papers

I used this article extensively in my post.

http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_10/adar/

In case anyone is really wondering, do i really think that Gnutella will be shut down by the RIAA? Good luck. You'll need more than you'll ever get.

--
Say the RIAA wants to sue someone (This assuming they took a shipload of computer experts and told them to stay up all week and find the address and phone number of one IP address.)(I know, but they still try to track people.) for 'illegal' activity. Let's say that they got the IP by hacking and spying, which is how they do it. How could they sue, if <b>they</b> got it illegally, and without permission, which is how they do it. I'm no lawyer, so what would happen?


Kirby
[IMG]http://**************.com/ms/kirbykore/images/kirbywave.gif[/IMG]

You've made an excellent point, Kirby. According to the US Constitution, a warrant is needed to search your property. If authorities go in without persmission and collect evidence, all that evidence will become null and void should a trial arise. Classically, this is applied to an example such as suspicion of growing marijuana (sp?) plants in your home. I really have no idea how this applies to the Internet and computers. Will anyone who really knows about this stuff comment, please?


P.S. Here are some more enlightening articles.

Looking for the next Napster
http://juno.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-6455436-0.html

Student's PC seized after Record Industry Complaint
http://juno.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2783386.html

I am at on a college campus right now, where we here also have a policy disallowing student from downloading copyrighted material. I don't agree or follow the rule obviously, but they really have no way of knowing, unless they are monitering my activity (they have to let you know if they are doing that, right?). Ack! Oh well. Anyhow, I was going to say that since this isn't my connection, it's technically not really my property, and so the school has any right to do whatever they want with my computer, although they would probably resort to just erasing my IP addy off the network.

If your college is providing your internet access, it would be possible for your college to put up a firewall to block all the major gnutella peer to peer communication ports. This would include 6346, 6347, 6348, and 6349. I know that there are others for other file sharing programs, but I can't recall off hand what they are. But not all the material on the Gnutella network is copyrighted, and this would block people from reaching "legal", unpirated material. It's kinda like the old saying (if it is a saying) goes:

You are given tools to work with. You can accomplish good things with them, or you can choose to to bad things with them. What you do is up to you.

Take for instance, a car. It is a tool that you can drive around for transportation, or you can use it to run some innocent pedestrian down. Just because people can do bad things with tools doesn't mean that the tools should be banned. The people that are using the tools unwisely should be disciplined. The debate taking place in the courts right now is this: Is sharing copyrighted music over the internet illegal/bad? Even if they deem this illegal, Napster should not be shut down, but there are exceptions to the saying.

This is an exaggerated example. Plutonium can be used to produce electrical energy. But it can also be used to make bombs, BIG bombs. Should we ban the tool? In this case, yes. Most of the time, the tool will be used for bad purposes. If the courts decide that file-sharing is used primarily for bad purposes, they can take it down. As we have already talked about, that will be an impossibility, but they will try nonetheless.