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9-18-03
Some of you may have noticed that I take every opportunity to bash the RIAA (okay, all of you have noticed). In recent weeks news outlets ranging from network news shows to local newspapers to radio talk shows have chimed in on the issue of file sharing and most call users of KaZaA and Morpheus thieves, pirates and cyber-shoplifters. Even Joe Elliott, who is ordinarily the voice of reason, likened file sharing to stealing office supplies from your place of employment.
So far my editorials haven’t
labeled me as an electronic Winona Ryder but I want to clarify exactly why I
rail against organizations like the RIAA and MPAA so vehemently.
Basically it’s because they
lie, boldfaced and without question.
They let their greed get the best of their common sense and they hope no
one notices. None of their
assertions add up under scrutiny, they sweep their sins of price fixing and
setting of sales and box office records under the rug while they ignore the best
market gauge known to man.
First let’s define theft,
piracy and copyright infringement.
According to Webster’s theft is “the unlawful or felonious taking away of
another’s property without his consent and with the intention of depriving him
of it”. Piracy is defined as “the
unauthorized publication or use of a copyrighted or patented
work”.
Obviously theft doesn’t
really apply here. Downloading a
song from the Internet in no way removes “property” from the owner that will
“deprive” him of it. If you steal
Hilary Rosen’s car, that’s another matter.
Piracy is another matter
entirely, and thanks to the heavy handed legal techniques used by the RIAA we
may never get a valid definition of this one. In this day and age a Pirate is
generally considered to be someone who makes copies of software or music CDs and
then sells them for his own profit.
Obviously this activity is wrong since the pirate profits from work done
by others.
The definition espoused by
the RIAA is in a much grayer area, since file sharers don’t profit from their
efforts. Until one of the hundreds
of cases launched by the RIAA actually makes it to court (here’s hoping they
happen to sue some descendent of J. Paul Getty) the question of piracy and
copyright may never be settled. The
specter of Fair Use is ever present to combat the RIAA’s efforts, which if
successful could outlaw such innocent activities as the display of the newest G
rated movies in video rental shops.
When the RIAA talks about
the 31% drop in sales since the advent of file sharing, they lie twice. Their own figures show that they set new
sales records during the years that Napster was up and running full force (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=9048). Looking at the chart on this page you’ll
see that sales were up 12.5% in ’98, 10.9% in ’99 and .4% in 2000 (ahem, when
was Napster sued out of existence?).
The 31% figure is also apparently bogus. According to the prestigious Forrester
Research group the drop in sales quoted at http://www.zeropaid.com/news/articles/auto/09122003f.php
(and we’re talking Gross sales dollars here, not profits) is more like 15% and
of that, 35% may be directly related to file sharing, or 5.25% over all.
When the RIAA talks about
their drop in sales being directly tied to file sharing they lie. According to a multitude of
statisticians the record companies actually made more in profits per release
over the last couple of years than they did during Napster’s heyday. You can review the stats at http://www.azoz.com/music/features/0008.html
or http://www.digitalcutuplounge.com/newsite/jvs_papers/file_sharing_report_2002.htm. Both show that file sharing had
absolutely nothing to do with the drop in profits “suffered” by the recording
industry.
The RIAA claims that file
sharing hurts artists. They
lie. Sites like http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html,
http://www.motley.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Board=news&Number=166819
and http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/print.html
describe what artists actually go through (warning, strong language contained on
the latter two sites). Artists are
hurt not a whit by file sharing and may actually benefit from having their music
introduced to new fans.
The RIAA and MPAA often
espouse the fact that the Internet offers perfect digital copies of movies and
music that equal that of DVDs and CDs.
Again, they lie. I challenge
any reader to download the Daredevil movie or a full copy of Warren Zevon’s
dying album (The Wind) and compare the quality to an actual CD or DVD. It just ain’t there. I can download movies all day long but
watching them on a two-inch square on my monitor doesn’t do much for me. It’s the same for songs downloaded from
the Internet. The sound quality
just ain’t there.
What it boils down to is
that the RIAA is letting the greatest real-time marketing tool (which would show
what is popular and what isn’t) as well as the best tool for exposing new
artists (through chat-room and college campus word of mouth) to the targeted
audience just slip away.
They seem to think that
filing suits against 12 year olds and grandfathers and broke college students is
the way to protect their monopoly on music. They are sadly
mistaken…
Still waiting for my Class
Action price fixing settlement check,
Kevin Mefford,
Editor
With the announcement of
three new vulnerabilities in the DCOM RPC component of Windows last week (http://news.com.com/2100-1009-5074008.html?tag=nl)
experts are warning that another Blaster type worm will likely show up any day
now. Of course Microsoft has issued
yet another patch for this exploit but you can take a proactive stance with a
free program from Steve Gibson over at Gibson
Research.
DCOMbobulater from http://grc.com/dcom/ allows users of vulnerable
systems (NT, 2000, XP etc.) to check the status of the DCOM client on their PCs
and simply shut it down. Home users
have no use for this capability at all and I have no idea why it’s enabled by
default given its many flaws.
Before the next wave of crippling worms hit just grab this tiny program
and save yourself the headaches.
Moving
Mailboxes
I have been
experimenting with the Beta version of Panther for the past few weeks. In fact I
have been using it as my primary OS on my iBook. As I don't want to mess with
NDA's and Apple Legal, all I am saying is that it is very nice.
One of
the unfortunate side effects of wiping out the OS and reloading it all the time
is that I have had to recreate my email mailboxes over and over
again.
The proper way to do this is
to create the accounts in the Mail Program then use the Import Mailboxes
function from the Menu Bar. File - Import Mailboxes. Please note that the
mailboxes for all your email accounts can be found under User/Library/Mail. This
works very well, and I have used it numerous times even across networks, such as
importing the mailboxes from my Powermac to my iBook.
Well one day just
on a whim I decided to try to do this the simple "Mac" way. Just as with any
other folder, file or application, I did a drag and drop of the entire mail
folder containing my mailboxes to copy it to my Firewire Hard Drive. Then after
a reinstall of the OS, I just dragged all the folders from the FW Hard Drive to
the now empty mail folder on my new OS. Lo and behold, when I opened my Mail
program, it worked perfectly! All the old email was saved and organized in the
various mailboxes that I had.
Download of the
week
Note: This download
is for Apple Macintosh computers only.
SmallImage
http://www.iConus.ch/fabien/english/smallimage.html
This is a great little program for reducing jpeg files. Jpeg files
contain a lot of metadata like profiles and comments that add to the size of the
file. This program deletes all the metadata thus reducing file size without
compromising quality. Moreover, when you use it to actually reduce the file size
the loss in quality is negligible. As a trial I reduced a 1.4 MB file to 530 KB
and could barely make out the difference between the two placed side by side. It
is great for large images that you want too put on a website or send by email.
And it is freeware to boot!
Hash
hash@ucanweb.com
This week has been a hard
one, mainly just drill, drill and more drill. It’s been a bit cooler though with
whatever system is active in the Atlantic.
We’ve had overcast skies, rain and a nice cool breeze. It actually feels
good.
On Thursday I had the
opportunity to tour the base with the Company’s 1st Sergeant. We saw the pool, which PLT 2101 will
start on next week. We then visited
the range and got to play with the simulator, called the “PlayStation
3000.” Each of us (24 recruits in
all, 4 from each Company) got to fire 5 shots at 200 yards. I had the best grouping with four in the
black and one just outside for 24 out of 25 points. When we go to the range for real we get
50 shots with a max score of 250. I
can’t wait.
We also visited the old
airfield, Paige Field, which last took an aircraft around 1957. Here we got an up close and personal
look at the “Crucible.”
As a Platoon we are lacking
complete teamwork. We have begun to
suffer because of this and if we’re to make it through the Crucible we’re going
to have to do better as a team.
Lastly we got to witness an
amazing event, an Eagle, Globe and Anchor ceremony. To see recruits who have lasted three
months on the Island that God forgot, shake the Drill Instructor’s hand and be
called a Marine for the first time instead of RCT and receive that EGA… I
finally realized what it’s all about, why people push themselves through three
months of Hell to become a Marine.
Short letter this week as
I’m pressed for time. I invite your
letters and questions still, and I ask for your prayers for not only myself but
for all RCTs and military personnel around the
world.
RCT Heite, Robert K
0733
PLT2102 2nd RTBN
PO Box
12004
Parris Island, SC 29905-2104
Q: I have been thinking about
upgrading one of my desktops from Win2K to WinXP Pro for a few of the goodies
that come for free with XP Pro. Plus I just bought a new DV camcorder and
the included software only works with XP.
I've got XP Home on my notebook so I'm in no rush on the
desktop.
Here's my question. We use a Cisco PIX 506E as a firewall
on our network
here at work. I have a Netgear wireless router with a
basic but effective
firewall on my home network. Can I expect to be
able to drill through
both of these firewalls to get access to my home
desktop from my work
desktop?
How hard is
it?
A: The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)
in WinXP is fairly simple to use. The RDP operates through port 3389, so all you
will have to do is configure both the Cisco and the Netgear routers to allow
traffic on port 3389 .In addition, if you are running NAT on your home network
(which I assume you are) then the Netgear wireless routers have the ability to
do "port forwarding" built into them so you will have to allow port 3389 to be
open and forwarded to the IP of the PC on your home network you want to control.
If you have more than one PC on your network in which you want to get at, then
you will have to add those IP's as well. As far as the Cisco Pix is concerned,
they have the same "port forwarding ability" however, since you are initiating
the traffic from the "office" side you won't need to do anything other then open
port 3389.
I hope this helps and thanks for listening!
Matt
Mercurio
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