Holy ****, the music industry is freakin' stupid. I don't like Napster. I think it hurts people that it is not intended to hurt (the musicians) but the reality is real. The RIAA, in all its ridiculous glory, has a choice: embrace it or be hurt by it. They can't beat it. That is just the way it is. Now, there are real opportunities here to succeed. The industry could LICENSE downloads. They could allow distributers to sell the music per song or per album online for, say, $8 to $10 per record and you get all the liner notes, etc. Just like software downloads, it makes it easy and still cheaper than a CD. There will always be people who get it free, but by institutionalizing it this way, the majority of people will simply go to the paid service. Problem basically solved. But, NOOOOOOO!!! Instead, the RIAA launched its two new methods of acquiring music via paid services. One is through Listen.com and the other is through RealOne.com . Here's the beauty of the whole thing. You choose between: 1. Stream only - that's right. No download, no saving, no MP3 quality. 2. Download <i>RENTAL</i> - You heard me. You get a copy of the MP3 for 3º days after which time it won't work any longer. My GOD, it ****ING BRILLIANT!!! Why didn't I think of it??? These idiots deserve to go broke. Frank Zappa predicted in a book in the early 80's that music would eventually come across the television via cable lines and that the liner notes would appear on the screen in front of you. Wow, pretty damn close to the truth. He didn't predict the internet, but it was close. Now, instead of being forward-thinking, like Mr. Zappa, the RIAA is just stupid. What a shock.
Seems pointless anyway. Couldn't you just DL it and then burn it onto a CD before the 3 day period expired?
Macrovision is copy-protecting certain CD's from being copied. A technology like this may stop what you describe above. Well, temporarily, at least. In time, it will be defeated like just about every other copy-protection scheme, though.
Copy Protection Schemes are a joke. They are cracked 10x faster than it takes to create it. When will people learn that hackers/piraters/consumers will more likely buy the product if they would just cut their prices ... like in half. I wish people would quit using the excuse that pirates drive the price up If they ever do find a unbreakable schemeing, then they will only raise the prices.....look at XP
XP has been pirated all over the place, I know of at least one person who got it before it was released.
