If the RIAA and the MPAA win

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by theknife
does this mean that mp3's from this service are useless elsewhere? and why would users migrate here from someplace like FastTrack, since I'm assuming there is a cost involved - for the quality of the tracks? and I was unable to find any reference to cd-burninig on their site - would it be allowed in this format (if format is the right word)?

Ok, here's what I figured out from their technical documentation:

Their content control is based on a list of allowed files (called 'whitelist') residing on their central servers. Only 'sanctioned' users with a special superclient version (read: Hilary Rosen & co) can add or remove files to/from this list, in other words decide what can be shared on the network. All download requests are fully controlled and initiated by the central servers in the old Napster fashion even if the downloads utilize FastTrack-like multisourcing. The files are identified by unique hash numbers so no renaming tricks will help to circumvent the system (like somebody would bother anyway ). With this arrangement there is no need to add any protective wrappers to the files themselves. mp3s approved for sharing will most likely be normal mp3s classified as free promotional material by the RIAA and what they try to do with PeerGenius is to distribute this stuff without costs using peer resources.

- tg