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- In the August 26 issue of The Economist there’s a story on page 68 titled “OnLine File Sharing - Free Musuc, Free Ride?”.
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- By modifying the peer software, two researchers at Palo Alto monitored a Gnutella server for 24 hours and found that of about 31,000 people on the system, ~70% offered nothing to download. 20% of the people constituted ~98% of the downloadable material, and 1% offered ~%40 of the material. People who upload content are essentially paying for everyone else to use their internet connections, and makes the system more vulnerable to legal attacks because most users aren’t contributing any material.
- I never got into Napster or Gnutella, and their use clearly is copyright violation, but them’s other issues. How much do you upload compared to what you download? - MC
:: Blesses himself ::
Bless me Father for I have sinned . It’s been 15years since my last confession.
I have cancelled people’s downloads coz they were dragging my connection speed ( 56k modem ) down to nothing . I also place files in area’s not visible to other Napster users .
I realise it’s not “playing the game” but my phone bill in high enough as it thank you very much .
I confess, all of my downloaded MP3’s (as opposed to the ones I’ve ripped from my CD collection) are from Napster, and since I use the Mac client Macster, I can’t share my sound files since that isn’t a feature yet. They’re currently on public release v.5.5, and I don’t know when the final version, which is supposed to include an upload feature, will be available.
SanibelMan, I used Macster 5.5 for the first time last night, and it does indeed have a sharing feature. As soon as you lauch the app, it scans your Downloaded Music folder for files. I stopped the process, and I assume by doing so I was able to download without making my own files available.
I read the same article mentioned in the OP, and I don’t think Napster may be as bad - anytime I login, there’s anywhere from 750,000 to over a million files being shared. But we’ll never know how many aren’t…
I’m lucky enough to have a cable connection in my area, so I’m able to download all kinds of stuff from Napster. I make most of it available whenever I’m on, especially if it’s something popular, to help keep the bottlenecks down. I will usually keep about 80% of my stuff available for upload. After all, I got it for free, the least I can do is make it available (unless it sounds like shit, then it’s deleted - the worst thing about Napster is people don’t get rid of incomplete or real shitty sounding files.)
I have kicked people off who were downloading at an insanely low rate, if there are a bunch of other people uploading. That one bad connection will bog everyone else down. I also limit to one simultaneous download per user. I can certainly see Yojimbo’s point about a regular phone line - at least with a cable connection it’s flat rate and there is more bandwitdh. That’s the main reason why I do make stuff available, because I can. I usually have 3 to 8 people uploading at any given time.
If I’m getting ready to shut it down for the night and someone has less than, say, 20 mins to go, I’ll wait while they finish. If anyone else starts uploading in the interim, I will boot 'em off. I have had people boot me off when I had less than 2 minutes of a download remaining, and those people suck. (and I stick with downloads from my speed or higher)
I also make my living with networking and unix systems, so it may be that I look at the whole thing differently than a non-tech person. Most people probably don’t realize the advantages of distributed file sharing for everyone. That, and some of 'em are just selfish pricks 
Not only do I share any files I have, I correct spelling, or artist errors (such as songs attributed to Weird Al Yankovic, but are in fact other artists) and note in the title if it’s incomplete or from vinyl (sounds scratchy, etc.) I actually have things I think others would be interested in but don’t know how to upload them as MP3 files. Oh well.
I confess that my MP3 folder is over 500 MB and growing. And I confess that I will never, ever, delete any of them.
I do, however, allow people to download as much as they want.
Wow… I must be the antithesis of the typical Napster user. I make all my MP3s available and actually feel slightly offended when days go by without anyone trying to download from me.
“Hey! This is good music here folks! Some of it I ripped myself because it never cmoes up on Napster! Don’t tell me you don’t want it!”
I thought this was going to be people admitting to downloading “Western Union,” but since it’s not, I don’t have it. I swear. 
Anyways, I only have a 56k, so I’ve disabled uploads on my system, but if I had a cable or DSL connection, I’d certainly put my max uploads at about 10 and stay connected constantly so I could share and share alike. I just don’t have the possibility right now.
–Tim
voguevixen
I wish more people were like you and corrected their titles or noted defects in the track. I’m forever correcting spelling on the stuff I get. I also don’t know how to convert to mp3, otherwise I’d add some stuff as well.
I am flabbergasted at all the shit I’ve been able to download. Almost every time I try for some obscure tune, I’ve found it. Between my wife and I, we’ve downloaded over 1000 :eek: mp3s from Napster, and a lot of it is stuff that would be the only decent song on the cd it came from.
I know some people feel Napster is copyright violation, but it’s not exactly cd quality sound, either. Besides, if record companies would make individual tracks available for purchase and download, and NOT for 1.49 a track, maybe more people would pay for music. 1.49 a track amounts to full store price on a cd, and we’re talking about avoiding manufacturing, shipping, store space, etc. when you download. I don’t feel bad at all for downloading mp3s when I think of all the money I spent on CDs only to find out that most of the songs sucked. At least with selective downloading, we get what we want, and I would pay for it if it were available.
I also don’t think downloading from Napster or whatever is any different than copying a friend’s cd or tape, or taping something off the radio. People have done it for years, and this is just an up-to-date version. The recording industry needs to recognize this and deal with it, instead of ripping of artists and the public.
If anyone hasn’t read Courtney Love’s rant on all of this, it’s pretty interesting: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/index.html
Oh, and Homer, would that be Western Union by Elvis or Five Americans? “doot da do da do doot da do da do…”
I’ll bet you secretly want it, but keep getting a transfer error
Oh, Wolf, I’m totally anal about correcting the file names. I always make them “Artist - Song Name.mp3” with each word capitalized, and a single - between the two.
Western Union, deet deet deet deet deet, doot doot doot doot doot…
–Tim
It irks me when people download my shared files, and don’t share any of theirs. I think sharing should be two ways. I’ve never done anything about it though.
I use Napster and I share every MP3 file I have (1300 or so and growing). Hell, since I have a cable modem I sometimes connect and don’t even download anything! I just leave it on for people to grab what they want from me. I have also encoded some of my cds into MP3’s, including television theme songs from the 50’s through the 80’s. They’re very popular and someone is always, ALWAYS, grabbing theme songs like Scooby-Do or The Muppet Show.
Dire Wolf:
When I want to shutdown my pc I just disconnect Napster (click File Disconnect) and let whoever is still uploading finish, as long as it won’t take more than an hour. Since I’m disconnected no new uploads can begin so I don’t have to keep an eye on it.
I can’t speak for Gnutella because I don’t use it, but some people have said that Napster users don’t share much either.
(Maybe they haven’t said it here, but it’s a constant topic at the Napster forums).
There’s been a glitch at Napster for at least the past couple of months that makes it seem as if very few people are sharing files.
Napster uses dozens of individual servers to distribute the load of users. When you open Napster and choose File --> Connect, Napster chooses which server to put you on based on how many other users are on all the servers. You have no say as to which server you’re put on, and there’s no (easy) way to find out which server you’ve been put on.
After much fiddling and tweaking, Napster has linked the servers so that you can search across servers, download based on the results of that search, and Instant Message across servers. That means if I’m on server6.napster.com and I search for Kate Bush, I can see that [name of person] has some songs I want, and I can get one or all of those songs, and I can message him to say “I see you’re a fellow Kate Bush fan. Hello” even if he is on server82.napster.com.
HOWEVER, if I hotlist him and try to look at his list, I will be told “No Files Shared” because he’s on a different server. He’ll see the same thing if he hotlists me and tries to look at my files, even though I’m sharing thousands of songs.
At the moment, the only “cure” for that is to download a program called Napigator that allows you to choose which server you get on. I tell him that I’m on server6.napster.com, he opens Napster using Napigator and chooses server6.napster.com from the list of servers, and he’ll be connected immediately. THEN, and only then, can we can look at each other’s lists.
This affects everybody on Napster and has been going on for weeks. It’s the last major bug they need to fix in order to make Napster behave the way it did a few months ago, before all the publicity caused Napster to be overloaded. (They then had to unlink all the servers, buy some new servers and start fixing the glitches again from scratch.)
Sure, some people don’t share their files, but I believe that most people do, and it’s only this temporary bug that’s causing the mistaken belief that very few are sharing.
bafaa
Ha! Funny you should post that, because I was discussing this at work and someone just told me the same thing! I never stopped to think about it, but from now on I will just disconnect from Napster while the remaining uploads finish.
Homer (and everyone else who is anal )
It warms my heart to know I’m not the only idiot who MUST have my songs as “Artist - Song Name”. And THEN organized into folders by type of music.
Mrs Wolf is always bitching because I move her new downloads into their appropriate folders. Left to her own devices, there would just be one huge pulsating glob of mangled titles and incomplete downloads. And of course, nothing would ever get backed up. It would drive me insane. (a short trip indeed)
You mightn’t know this as you’re new here but we have a member of the Five Americans posting on the board, aha .
At a few universities Napster has been banned due to the overload on the system from people uploading files. Hasn’t happened here yet, but I’m not going to be one of the ones who makes it happen (if it does).
Not to mention that last year Computing Services here did a crackdown (cutting off network services) on people sharing MP3s on the campus network. Not Napster, but I’m not going to tempt fate.
I once shot a man just to watch him die, but then I got distracted and missed it. My friends tried to describe it to me, but it just wasn’t the same.
I found out last night that even if you terminate the scan, your files are available to other users. Just thought I’d update you.
Thanks, Audrey. I was looking at the preferences last night and ran across the option to share files - I turned it off, since I have a 56K connection. If/when I get some high-speed always-on connection, I’ll turn on sharing.