In this thread I wondered aloud why anybody would bother with MP3s from the internet since they seemed like a major pain in the ass. Some people offered suggestions of Napsterlike software to make it easier but the discussion was centering mostly around how one might take LPs and cassettes they already own and convert them to MP3s for putting on a home-burnt CD. At that point you said:
and locked the thread.
Why? You were not protecting anybody from finding out about Gnutella, for instance, as that is a product that has been mentioned in every TV, radio, magazine, and newspaper article about Napster for the past six months. And, as the discussion was about copying my own records to my own CDs, a legally protected procedure, we were not discussing anything illegal. The worst that could be said about the thread was that it had “deteriorated” into a General Question and the correct action on your part then would have been to move it, not lock it. Why did you not do that instead?
dropzone, dropzone…just let it go, dude. It’s a subject that the SDMB chooses not to have discussed here - even in a roundabout way. I know you didn’t mean to offend by your question, but asking questions dealing with file and music-sharing software inevitably turns into a locked thread - you know it, I know it, we all know it. It’s just their policy and we as members have to abide by it - the same way certain other topics are forbidden to be discussed on other Boards. There’s no point asking about it or discussing it, any more than asking me why I don’t allow certain things to be discussed on my Board.
You can post all you want about file and music-sharing software on other Boards. Just let this go.
Well, maybe it’s just that I’m going through a stretch of a locked thread (here) and a deleted post (there) and I’m a little sensitive. And no, I wasn’t really all that familiar with the practice you described because A) I wasn’t interested in this until yesterday and B) I was trying to keep the thread pointed in a LEGAL direction. You know me well enough that I don’t try to make (much) trouble and am an annoyingly straightlaced person. So to be treated like a common Napster user, well, I don’t appreciate it.
And, after my experience with my porn tour of the internet while at lunch at work, when I couldn’t close windows without more opening up and was thanking the Goddess that I was alone in the office, I’m a little leery about visiting those message boards you mentioned.
I have asked Eutychus for permission to open a new thread dealing NOT with file sharing s/w but with the processes by which vinyl albums and cassette tapes are converted to digital format for burning on CDs (including in compressed format such as MP3).
In my letter I have noted that the practice of doing so is not remotely illegal.
In the event that he decides that such a thread should not be opened, consider yourselved invited to email me and I will provide such information and cite previous posts from other threads that contain relevant data.
Gotta say, the guy standing in the middle of the group hug looks pretty turned on. I’m guessing it’s not the wall furnishing’s that’s rocking his Casbah.
What Anthracite said. The legal questions round this situation are much too murky, and for the millionth time we’ve decided that discussions of this sort are best left off the board.
Now that Hollywood the FBI the CIA and the NSA have conspired to overthrow the revolutionary concept of file sharing software like the now ex-Napster and are now working on the furtherance of their facist jihad by the attempted legal napalming of Limewire, Bearshare, and ** Audio Galaxy** it seems all may be lost to the storm troopers of this oppressive new Taliban of data.
In declaring this legal Fatwah against these brave digital freedom fighters who are being treated as if they have hoisted the Jolly Roger and are selling the Anarchist’s Cookbook or child porn on every street corner it seems all hope is lost for these services against the throw weight of these legal neutron bombs.
[sub]Just giving carnivore something to do on a lazy Sunday afternooon[/sub].
There is absolutely NOTHING murky about the legality of re-recording my own records for my own use. It is COMPLETELY legal. Perhaps it’s my arrested-six-year-old’s overdeveloped sense of justice, but you closed that thread because of the MENTION of MP3s and sharing software. Your lack of familiarity with The Reader’s REAL potential legal liability has led you to be paranoid and arbitrary.
Opal and Una, I appreciate your suggestions, but I was offended HERE and HERE is where I will fight this. Hooking up my amp to my sound card is no doubt simpy, but I’m just wondering if the audio bandwidth through the microphone input is broad enough to make it worthwhile, but I’ll just have to try it myself because that six-year-old in me REFUSES to ask it anywhere if he can’t ask it here.
Spoofe and Billy, I backtracked to find out more about that site without having to drag my ass through TWO threads and now my computer is mooing.
Euty closed your thread. A curiosity is understandable, but you find yourself offended by the act, then maybe you shouldn’t have so much emotional investment in your threads.
Hey, don’t yell at me. I’m deeply, deeply offended that Billy Rubin would post such a site in relation to my own mentioning of my name, and now I will FIGHT this, I will FIGHT this 'til my dying breath, I will FIGHT until the world ends because I wanna OVERREACT.
HAH! You think your subtle hints will pull me off my soapbox, but that’s where you are DEAD WRONG! No sirree, I just woke up from a nap and I’m CRANKY!
Maybe you women, young people, or other oppressed minorities are accustomed to pulling your forelock and saying “Thank you, Massa!” whenever you get kicked in the 'nads, but, like Rob Roy, I am a Middle-Classed*, Middle-Aged, White Male! I defer to NO ONE and I’m not used to putting up with shit like this! Hell, it’s my role in society to DISH OUT shit like this!
