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Students Learning To Evade Moves To Stop File Sharing

Overhype

from the cat-and-mouse dept

Tue, Nov 26th 2002 10:50pm — Mike Masnick
We've said many times that attempts to stop file sharing are pointless. Now that the RIAA is asking universities to help police their own networks, it's becoming even more obvious that file sharing won't go away. This NY Times article shows how, for every attempt to stop file sharing on campus, students have found relatively easy ways around them. This is just going to continue. It's a cat-and-mouse game that's never going to end, unless the music industry learns to embrace file sharing, and realizes that doing so will open up plenty of new opportunities for them.
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10 Comments

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  • identicon
    dorpus, 27 Nov 2002 @ 12:02am

    It is not as it seems

    College kids may revel in their Robin Hood status, by having "outsmarted" record companies. However, what is really happening is that file swapping activity is being driven deeper underground.

    Whenever any activity is driven deeper underground, more sharks appear. Organized crime and super-predators will befriend the Robin Hoods for "business deals". The Robin Hoods will be entrapped in more serious crimes involving narcotics or kiddie porn trafficking. The Robin Hoods will find it difficult to get out, because doing so leads to thugs appearing out of nowhere and beating the crap out of them.

    I say unto the Robin Hoods, get out while you can.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      sigh, 27 Nov 2002 @ 1:44am

      Re: It is not as it seems

      Dorpus must be some kind of troll - this is the fourth or fifth entirely ridiculous posting that there has been with this name.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        dorpus, 27 Nov 2002 @ 2:06am

        Re: It is not as it seems

        Hardly. In every generation, young people are convinced their flaunting of authority serves a higher noble purpose. In reality, they often play into the hands of criminal elements.

        Most of them will learn this the hard way, though a few wise ones may have the foresight to accept advice.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      dorphus2, 27 Nov 2002 @ 4:47am

      Re: It is not as it seems

      GOP may revel in their Robin Hood status, by having "outsmarted" usa voters. However, what is really happening is that political corruption is being driven deeper underground.
      Whenever any activity is driven deeper underground, more sharks appear. Organized arms manufacturers and energy companies will befriend the Robin Hoods for "business deals". The Robin Hoods will be entrapped in more serious crimes involving oil or arms trafficking. The Robin Hoods will find it difficult to get out, because doing so leads to the cia appearing out of nowhere and shooting them down.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anaonymoose, 27 Nov 2002 @ 3:01pm

      Re: It is not as it seems

      Organized crime doesn't get involved with distributing free stuff, even if it's illegal.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Joe Schmoe, 27 Nov 2002 @ 8:08am

    Yo, Mike

    I'm with ya, past postings as evidence, so don't take this as a snipe... But, just what are some of the "plenty of new opportunities" that you elude to. Curious to know your thoughts about life after filesharing.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 27 Nov 2002 @ 8:17am

      Re: Yo, Mike

      Actually working on a much larger article discussing this with some very specific examples, so I'm not going to get into them right here, right now. But, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out where I'm coming from. Every technology that Hollywood has feared has opened up new opportunities. They hated the idea of the VCR and now look at how much of their business is focused on video rental and sales.

      The music industry doesn't seem to understand the basic economics of content, and why some content is better used as a promotion for other things people will pay for.

      When more things become accessible to more people, new opportunities always arise...

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Steve, 27 Nov 2002 @ 11:07am

        Re: Yo, Mike

        Not to mention, VCRs pretty literally ended up saving Disney from disaster. Prior to VCRs, Disney had been floundering pretty misearably, a string of unsuccessful flops and what winners they had were not nearly enough for a company that size. Then along came the VCR and they essentially had a license to print money buy releasing their classics all over again. Not to mention for their bread and butter market, it should have been obscenely obvious that the the home video tape was a much better fit than theatrical releases. Kids want to see Disney movies, but kids are very good at sitting in one place for long periods of time.

        Devil's advocate mode...
        There are some reasons that p-to-p is fundamentally different than those other technologies. Digital copies are non degrading, the internet provides a simple, effective medium for sharing that didn't exist before, and copies are essentially free. While tape trading has existed for years, it always cost some money--hard drive space is effectively free.
        Devil's Advocate mode off

        The lesson has to be that providing something that customers want is always a good business model, and fighting technological progress is not. If they spent a fraction of the resources they put into fighting technology on coming up with new ways to use it they would be a lot better off.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Oliver Wendell Jones, 27 Nov 2002 @ 11:08am

        Hollywood is making a fortune

        Just saw on CNN Headline News at lunch today that the first 6 months of 2002 alone, $3,050,000,000 in sales of DVDs. That's up 80% from the same period last year.

        I guess all those pirates downloading poor quality copies off the various PtP systems are really hurting their sales...

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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