File Sharing - Now Mainstream And Entrenched

[JackSpratts]

By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY
Last summer, the record labels breathed a collective sigh of relief when song-swapping service Napster was forced to shut down after a string of legal setbacks.
Further legal successes by the industry seemed to cripple Napster successors such as Aimster (now called Madster). The labels also sued Kazaa, Morpheus and Grokster and fought back with their own paid subscription services, Pressplay and MusicNet.
But any presumptions of victory were premature. A little less than a year after Napster was shuttered, the swapping of songs for free over the Net has grown more pervasive, and the music labels' attempts to sell subscription services have foundered. There's no sign that the situation will change soon.
Now it's not just music that's available for free, but also movies (including Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones, which hasn't even reached theaters yet), pirated software, photographs and games.
File-sharing's popularity is "unflagging," says Kelly Green, director of CNet's Download.com, where many post-Napster programs such as Kazaa, Morpheus and Bearshare are available. "File-sharing at first was for early adopters and enthusiasts, but now it's mainstream."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/t...ic-sharing.htm

- js.

[dead_frog]

Now it's not just music that's available for free, but also movies (including Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones, which hasn't even reached theaters yet)

Ironically I think they're seeing the fake (or misnamed) versions, as the real copy is hard to find without a startfile.

[JackSpratts]

unless they're using it too - and why not?

- js.