[multi]

link The File Sharing Experiment


[Official Project Start: Jul 31 05:08pm EST]

The file sharing experiment is an attempt to catalog some financial figures about how much revenue the industries backing organizations such as the RIAA, MPAA, and SPA have gained by file sharing. The file sharing database consists of a list of items and prices which contributing users have both purchased, and would not have purchased if they hadn't first downloaded/shared identical or related files. The ultimate goal is to show what (if any) significant revenue the RIAA, MPAA, and SPA have to credit to the file sharing community, and hopefully convince some of the organizations supporting them that their money would be better spent taking advantage of this market rather than trying to exterminate it.

It has always been my belief that various industries have actually earned more revenue as a direct result of file sharing, and that file sharing works FOR the industry. Recent figures such as the music industry's latest earnings report have shown results contrary to what the RIAA has consistently complainted about in that file sharing hurts the industry. So if you would like to contribute, click submit above. Post your merchandise, how much you paid, and why you wouldn't have bought it if you first hadn't downloaded something. No IP addresses or personal information is logged - so there's nothing to subpoena. The complete (growing) catalog is available for review by clicking here. The totals shown below are only temporary, and may be reduced later once the logs are crunched through a filter (to detect bogus entries or flooding), or as users help identify suspect or bogus entries.

Things not to report on:

* Software purchased after a beta test, demo, or other manufacturer-authorized distribution
* Items purchased after 'word of mouth' recommendation (unless of course you also downloaded it yourself)
* Music or movies purchased after previewing using an authorized distribution channel (Amazon, Real, Internet radio, etcetera)
* Generic collections of albums for which you can't recall the names


The catalog will be analyzed by multiple individuals before any final numbers are made available, so it's only a waste of time to post bogus entries.

and an update to this

Windows XP SP2 Available As P2P Download
Laurence Norah

A site which is attempting to highlight the benefits of file sharing technology as a legal download aid has set up a peer to peer downloadable version of Microsoft's latest Service Pack for Windows XP.

Downhill Battle are a non-profit organisation who are working towards trying to create a better and fairer music industry. However, they have obviously seen the potential publicity that they can gain for peer to peer technologies by offering users this must have download at a potentially higher availability than from Microsoft's own servers.

Downhill Battle are hosting a torrent of the file which can be downloaded using the filesharing BitTorrent application. The idea of this system is that as a user downloads sections of a file, they simultaneously start uploading the file to other users. In this way everyone is able to share the file quicker. Although slow to start off with, with a high volume of users participating the total download speeds reached can be pretty high.

Of course, this is a highly dubious publicity stunt which is not without risk. To start with, downloading such a major piece of software from a site which is neither endorsed nor supported by Microsoft is not necessarily a great idea. Add to that the fact that Microsoft have not given Downhill Battle redistribution rights to their software and Downhill Battle suddenly appear on the wrong side of the law. Not a great idea for a site which is trying to promote the benefits of legal software distribution over Peer to peer applications.

No doubt Microsoft will intervene at some point. We'll let you know when they do.
http://itvibe.com/default.aspx?NewsID=2801

Sorry, no more downloads here...
Microsoft sent DMCA takedown notices to our two webhosts, one of which was just linking to a torrent file on another server. We've stood up to these kinds of legal threats before (see the Grey Tuesday protests), but we decided not to bother this time, because we started this site primarily as a demonstration and to that end it's already been a huge success. SP2torrent.com showed how filesharing technlogy gives people without budgets or huge servers the power to solve problems themselves, without waiting for the government or some corporation to do it for them. For another demonstration that's still in action, check out p2pcongress.org

http://sp2torrent.com/