Post Your Count - What effect is the RIAA having on sharing?
 

Thought we could start a little tab here that anyone can do and the more the better.

A lot of people are wondering how the P2P community will react to the RIAA's reported use of lawsuits against file sharers. Since there will undoubtedly be a lot of disinformation about its effects coming from various factions, I thought it would be helpful to keep our own running count of the files shared on Fasttrack. From now on whenever I log onto the Network I'll post the Share amounts I see along with the client I'm using. Since I don’t get on FT all that much, the more people that post here the more accurate the numbers will be.

If you log onto the Network just drop in and put up the numbers. The amount of files shared varies a lot anyway, but over time we should be able to tell if a trend is developing.

This way we can watch and see what effect - if any – these RIAA show suits are having on Fasttrack, the world’s largest file sharing network.

Clean Grokster -

Users: 4120895

Files: 855573K

Gigs: 6465024

- js.

excellent thread - i was thinking about this when i posted here

....these were the numbers 2 days ago, on 6/27: 3,908,026 users sharing 838, 072,925 files

this is from KazaaLite, but all FastTrack clients should reflect the same pool of users, no?

as a reference point you can use my figures for fasttrack from 4.29.03 to 5.31.03 (i stopped keeping track coz the numbers weren't changing that much but now sure is a good time to start back up)- all times are eastern standard time (eastern u.s.) the times that the figures are taken really matter- notice some of the lesser quality news articles that claimed there was a drop immediately following the riaa news but in fact there is always a substantial drop in users and files shared after late evening e.s.t. (as i'm typing this it's 3:27am where i am and there are 3.2 million) the peak times i was noticing towards the end were between 1-3 pm est...saturdays and sundays always had more users. one thing you'll notice is that i tended to go with the higher volume times (afternoon) so my figures would be good in the right context (the lowest points as far as user numbers during this point were in the low to mid 3 million range)...

4.29.03 4.1 million 7:30 pm est, 4.2 @7:46pm
4.30.03 4.1 12:10pm
5.1.03 4.3 12:30pm, 4.5 mill. @4:35pm
5.2.03 4.1 12:00pm
5.4.03 4.95 4:10pm, 4.72 mill. @4:15pm
5.5.03 4.25 11:55am, 4.42 mill.@7:42pm
5.6.03 4.35 5:10pm
5.9.03 4.26 5:10pm
5.10.03 4.41 2:00pm
5.11.03 4.17 12:30pm
5.12.03 4.24 12:20pm
5.14.03 4.31 1:20pm
5.17.03 4.19 12:30pm, 4.34 mill @ 1:05pm
5.19.03 4.10 12:35pm, 4.51 mill @ 3:10pm
5.22.03 4.21 12:20pm
5.23.03 4.10 12noon, 4.42 mill. @4:20pm
5.24.03 4.09 12:40pm, 4.43 mill. @3:10pm
5.25.03 4.47 1:30pm, 4.72 mill. @3:50pm
5.26.03 4.39 12:53pm, 4.71 mill @3:40pm
5.27.03 4.29 2pm, 4.49 mill @4:30pm
5.29.03 4.23 2:40pm
5.30.03 4.27 3:20pm
5.31.03 4.3 3pm (882 million shared files)

total shared files at 3:50pm 5.25.03 was 993 million...highest so far (as of 5.31.03)


source:http://www.fasttrackmovies.com/forum...ms=kazaa,users (requires you to register for the fasttrackcentral forum)

June 29, 2003 - 18:00 EST
Network Users
FastTrack 3,887,832
iMesh 1,295,944
eDonkey 796,398
Overnet 573,440
MP2P 202,654
Gnutella 109,685
DirectConnect 104,809
FileNavigator 34,659
Ares 10,434
Filetopia 2,531




theres always these figures at http://www.slyck.com

that's great guys! :tu:

- js.

Clean Grokster -

Users: 3721015

Files: 765356K

Gigs: 5960960.0

- js.

clean grokster -

Users: 4314994

Files: 885037k

Gigs: 6503936.0

- js.

P2P Networks
July 1, 2003 - 8:00 EST
Network Users
FastTrack 3,906,970
iMesh 1,300,910
eDonkey 875,921
Overnet 573,440
MP2P 182,914
DirectConnect 138,670
Gnutella 90,153
FileNavigator 35,096
Ares 9,870
Filetopia 2,969

Ya know
 

In the p2p grand scheme of things, (R ya paying attention RIAA/MPAA f-tards and asshats?), 4,000,000/5,000,000 people (WORLDWIDE) dling and uling files doesn't seem like a devastatingly mindnumbing number to me.......... :f:

Guess my idea of crisis proportions and <their> idea of crisis proportions are 2 totally different points of view.............:o


:dir: :att:


d'uh!

fasttrack as of 2:10 pm est (july 2, 2003)

4,291,739 users
895,631,896 files
6.5 million gigs

(pretty high for a weekday)

as a contrast to the highest activity here's 2:15 am est july3 2003

fasttrack network
3,235,635 users
723,768,357 files
5.5 gigs

They will catch and punish a few, but the P2P networks will just adapt to enhance anonymity.

With clients like waste bearing over 1500 bit encryption that is unique for each user, and a trusted client private network ability, it's going to be a lot tougher to find out what is being traded between users.

They will spend a lot of money trying to catch people and devise schemes to thwart trading, all for naught. This will tend to make them want to keep prices high, to defray the costs of P2P countermeasures. This works against them in a big way.

The only thing they can do that will be effective is to offer a high quality product at a reasonable price. Then, folks will not mind (as much) paying the price for the retail product.

Wow, does that mean all those files have an average of a .000128 bitrate? :CG:

Imesh is on the FastTrack system but only use about a 1/4 of it as Imesh does not use super nodes

you got me- it's 5.5 million lol


more figures:
(all eastern standard time)


7.3.03 4.26 1:40pm 892.8 million
7.4.03 4.08 3:00pm 865 m files/ 6.3 m gigs
7.7.03 4.15 1:20pm 861 m files/ 6.3 m gigs and 4.43 4:40pm 922 m / 6.6 m

clean grokster -

Users: 4284698

Files: 878409k

Gigs: 6468608.0

since first post - users up, files up, total bytes up. :tu:

- js.

a matter of time
 

well from my figures for 7.2.03 to today (minus the weekend which has always had a much higher number) i don't see much of a change (also when put up against the figures from may) it's all a matter of what time the figures are taken (at 11 a.m. today est there were 3.7 million users)

7.2.03 4.29 2:10pm est 895.6 million shared files
7.3.03 4.26 1:40pm 892.8 million
7.4.03 4.08 3:00pm 865 m files/ 6.3 m gigs
7.7.03 4.15 1:20pm 861 m files/ 6.3 m gigs
7.7.03 4.43 4:40pm 922 m / 6.6 m
7.8.03 4.22 1:25pm 866 m files/ 6.4 m gigs

Re: a matter of time
 

and that's my point d3. :ND: while it's early in the legal game it's not too early for the riaa propaganda machines to crank up stories purporting to show the lawsuits having a negative effect on sharing (several such stories have appeared already). the casual reader may stumble across such an article and take it at face value. but like file sharing and sales figures, no easy correlations can be made - empirically - between the subpoenas and the amount files shared. in this case, they can't even say the peer-to-peer figures are down, let alone credit any threats of legal action on their part. it can be said with assurance however that the riaa's actions are damaging whatever reputation the record industry has left.

- js.

definitely js- just thought i saw something about figures being up overall from your last post- just balancing that with my numbers. the reason why i started keeping track at the end of april was when they started sending their feeble ims and the month of may was the best month fasttrack has ever had in terms of peak number of users...

grokstah

users: 3848619

files: 811281k

gigs: 6101760

KC on the today show this morning stated that filesharing use is down 15% since the riaa terrorist threats.

o, and in the segment they touted the "sales are down 25%" line. classic.

:cr:

who didn't see that coming...:RE:

well you know, they can say what they want but it won't make it true. that's what this thread is for; to counter riaa sponsored media propaganda.

todays stats are essentially identical to the ones in the above post by theknife from june 27th, two and a half weeks ago. :doh:

- js.

me neither. since fasttrack is by far the largest network in the file sharing universe it begs the question just why the reporters are using nielsen estimations for thier sources. statistical extrapolation is arguably ok - when that's all you have - but when your network comes wth a working gas guage you're a fool, or worse, not to use it.

- js.

Clean iMesh(Dr Damn version 1.32)

1,286,170 users online

it doesnt say how many gigs or how many files, but that is a good number and i always get tons of hits when searching.

status: unchanged from april

grokster - july 21st

users: 421092

files: 888541

gigs: 6413312

- js.

later that very same day...



4:45pm, July 21st, 2002.

Grokster Use Hits All-Time High!:BGS:


Users: 4967849

Files: 1040401

Gigs: 7539328



The is the all time high since we've been keeping track, at least as far as can be accurately counted.

Very interesting. :ND: :dance:

- js.

user/file counts still high, still four million plus. if the riaa is having an effect it's not apparent on fasttrack. :N:

- js.

user counts still high, especially for summer, with 3,700,000 individuals using the network this afternoon.

- js.

still holding pretty strong, no?

fasttrack user's are very comfortable at the four million mark, regardless of any legal actions taken against uploaders - including actual lawsuits. conceivably people could be leeching the system and not sharing but the numbers don't support that theory. although the gig count has been higher at times, at 5.5 it's the same as it was almost two months ago, on july 3rd, before the multi thousand dollar settlements and those stories of poor 12 year old girls bullied and shamed by a reprehensible riaa. :o

if the suits are having any effect at all on the millions of people who file share it’s not what the riaa had in mind. :)

- js.

so where are they getting these numbers from?

we know the number of overall FastTrack users is largely unchanged - the above claims are based on US p2p traffic. but i am curious as to how accurate this claim is....specifically, how can an outside firm distinguished what percentage of Fast Track traffic is US based? Anbody know the technical methodology at work here...some kind of statistical sampling, perhaps, extrapolating the conclusion by taking a sample of Fast Track ip addresses?

nielsen, whose paying clients include every one of the old line media companies, has been inextricably linked to the media conglomerates for generations, and should be regarded with skepticism during this time, as should anyone using trend extrapolations and statistical samplings to estimate any p2p user bases. for instance bigchampange has come under fire for making file popularity claims in the past and refusing to allow their methodologies to be peer reviewed. there are incompetents and worse making grandiose statements and many have absolutely nothing in the way of empirical data to back them up.

it’s not like we didn’t see this coming, that’s why this thread exists; to counter what is certainly a major misinformation campaign designed to obscure the failures of the industry’s attempts to marginalize and criminalize users of file sharing programs.

the fact is that people are trading and sharing files as never before. the networks are filled with millions of users sharing billions of files. fyi, here are this afternoons 2 pm fasttrack user numbers, as healthy as ever.

no one ever has to take anyone’s word for this, just log on and download a file or two – and see for yourself.

- js.

i think they might be counting each time a dialup user logs in with a different IP as a unique visitor ..
and for some that will be every few hours



its my guess that many will stop using the mainstream p2p sharing apps...
in favor of safer new emerging p2p models..and falls in numbers will mostly be a movement of the more experienced file sharers back to irc and newsgroups or maybe to undergound VPN's ,snail mail and sneakernet...

a lot of these lost sales are contributed to the internet when i think they are over looking at how people share one store bought CD amongst bunches of friends....with a simple CD burning technology...
oh well... to do anything about that, would mean taking on too many huge rich companies ,when taking a bat to the small guy on the internet is so much easier....

these numbers as put by these record companies are totaly suspect as are their profit losses..and have been from the start..and should be independently reviewed before ever being used to back up a case in a court of law..

fastrack may stumble but it's very much alive. regardless of pew surveys, user counts remain healthy. add in assorted non-ft traffic (the fastest growing part of p2p) and filesharing is moving forward smartly.

- js.

- js.

Massive content shared, close to the all-time high.

- js.

Saw this Wednesday:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06..._piracy_cases/

They're not even counting BT users in the numbers posted. BT2 is just around the corner too.

never underestimate the laziness of the established media. it's bad enough they take the riaa's self-serving, inaccurate word for nearly everything but when they do venture beyond the propaganda to report on the “status of file-sharers” they invariably mean file-sharers using one of the many fasttrack clients. hence when you see articles purporting to show file sharing is "down" the subtext is clear: they mean "kazaa use is down." for some reason the media can only hold one file sharing system in it's collective head at the same time. first napster, then morpheus - now kazaa/fasttrack. what is absolutely amazing about this is the fact that even that limited world view is corrupt. life in the fasttrack system is as vibrant as ever. if usage statistics are today as close to the all-time high as ever before, and they are, then any reports purporting to claim file-sharing (ft) is down are worse than inaccurate. they are untruths, the end result of a long chain of inaccuracies born of sloppiness moving right up thru and including deliberate falsifications. the more the media coalesces into one giant corporate voice the more it will fear and subdue the limited options left, and the more the people will seek alternative outlets like fasttrack and the many other excellent p2p systems either already in use like waste and bittorent or in development. rest assured the more of these clients they say we’re deserting, the more we’ll actually be using. :SR:

- js.

What Mr. Spratts said. :ND:

The 'established media' hasn't had much of a clue of the true p2p scene so far, and we're already four years into the p2p revolution. Instead of digging up the real phenomena and development trends (as you would expect from professionals) they are happy to draw their reports from some simplistic and often dubious statistics.

For example, most reporters and researchers still almost totally miss the concept of communities as the living and evolving powerhouse of p2p. And yet communities are the primary force and continuation in p2p - any particular software or network is just secondary and replacable infrastructure to serve the communities. The complex network of personal and community relations extends over the entire p2p ecosystem, and whatever happens on any particular network - even if the statistics were correct - can only give a very superficial idea of what is truly going on. Especially now when a lot of sharing has moved over to WASTE and other private networks the only way to get even a rough idea of the volumes of shares and the amount of traffic is to get involved and become an active and well-connected filesharer yourself. This is of course what millions of common people have done, and so we are in a paradoxical situation where the media is reporting phantom trends from a statistical phantom world to people who know much better and who are happily doing the real thing in the real world - just as they have done ever since Napster happened. :BL:

- tg :WA: