p2pnet - rss feed: PyMusique and the generation gap
p2pnet news | P2P:- Remember PyMusique?
It arrived in early 2005 courtesy of Travis Watkins, Cody Brocious and DVD Jon Johansen in the shape of a Linux client for Apple’s constipated iTunes.
It would allow Linux users to download tracks from iTunes without Apple’s trademark DRM, also providing an optional GUI for Windows, p2pnet posted.
But, said New York Times technology guy David Pogue at the time:
To me, it’s obvious that PyMusique is designed to facilitate illegal song-swapping online. And therefore, it’s wrong to use it.
Now, “I’ve been doing a good deal of speaking recently,” he says in a new New York Times post, and during his presentations, he attempts to, “illustrate how many shades of wrongness there are, and how many different opinions,” going on, “Almost always, there’s a lot of murmuring, raised eyebrows and chuckling,” and adding:
Recently, however, I spoke at a college. It was the first time I’d ever addressed an audience of 100 percent young people. And the demonstration bombed.
In an auditorium of 500, no matter how far my questions went down that garden path, maybe two hands went up. I just could not find a spot on the spectrum that would trigger these kids’ morality alarm. They listened to each example, looking at me like I was nuts.
Finally, with mock exasperation, I said, “O.K., let’s try one that’s a little less complicated: You want a movie or an album. You don’t want to pay for it. So you download it.”
There it was: the bald-faced, worst-case example, without any nuance or mitigating factors whatsoever.
“Who thinks that might be wrong?”
Two hands out of 500.
Now, maybe there was some peer pressure involved; nobody wants to look like a goody-goody.
Maybe all this is obvious to you, and maybe you could have predicted it. But to see this vivid demonstration of the generational divide, in person, blew me away.
I don’t pretend to know what the solution to the file-sharing issue is. (Although I’m increasingly convinced that copy protection isn’t it.)
I do know, though, that the TV, movie and record companies’ problems have only just begun. Right now, the customers who can’t even *see* why file sharing might be wrong are still young. But 10, 20, 30 years from now, that crowd will be *everybody*. What will happen then?
The answer is writ plain.
It’s called P2P.
And by then, the corporate dinosaurs will be gone, killed by their own insatiable greed.
Meanwhile, “In September 2005, Jon Lech Johansen released SharpMusique, written in C#, which took over where PyMusique left off,” says the Wikipedia, adding:
“The program was kept updated until version 1.0, at which point it was no longer updated. The iTunes protocol changed, and users of SharpMusique were able to release primitive patches to account for the changes until mid 2006, when the protocol changed drastically. Around this time, without public announcement, the download links for SharpMusique and its source were removed from Johansen’s website [3]. As a result, it is no longer easily available.
“Another program, QTFairUse, also removes DRM from iTunes Store downloads, and continues to be maintained.”
(Thanks, R)
Also See:
p2pnet - 1st PyMusique, now Musik, April 14, 2005
New York Times - The Generational Divide in Copyright Morality, December 20, 2007
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December 21st, 2007 at 11:48 am
“PyMusique…allow[ed] Linux users to download tracks from iTunes without Apple’s…DRM.”
This what it did. Period. No file sharing protocol. The only real difference between PyMusique and iTunes was the PyMusique files were not hobbled with DRM. What does this mean? Interoperability. Being able to use your files in the way you want on any device that supports the mp4 format without arbitrary limitations.
From this, New York Times luddite guy David Pogue concludes,
“To me, it’s obvious that PyMusique is designed to facilitate illegal song-swapping online. And therefore, it’s wrong to use it.”
The only thing he can see is the supposedly “illegal” use of the files. Out goes the baby with the bathwater once again. Shades of wrongness indeed. And he wonders why he gets blank stares…
BTW, I’m 49. “Generational divide” my arse. This guy is just a corporate shill.
December 21st, 2007 at 12:57 pm
RE:“To me, it’s obvious that PyMusique is designed to facilitate illegal song-swapping online. And therefore, it’s wrong to use it.”
*****
you aren’t reading the article correctly.
that is what he wrote in EARLY 2005!
now it’s late 2007 and that’s what the article is about
“But 10, 20, 30 years from now, that crowd will be *everybody*.”
December 21st, 2007 at 3:50 pm
The morality angle is easy to explain. Young people are realizing at an earlier and earlier age that just because something is illegal doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s “wrong”. In some places you can get suspended from school for having purple hair, but is purple hair really “wrong” ? It’s illegal to criticize your government in some countries, but is it really “wrong” to do so? In some places it’s illegal for a woman to go out in public without appropriate attire ( I believe I have read about at least one US locality where it’s illegal for a woman not to wear a bra in public, for instance) but is it really “wrong” for her to do so? In Britain I believe it’s illegal to operate a television reciever without a permit, but is it really “wrong” ? And the list goes on and on…
My point is that, in my opinion, the more of these kinds of disconnects young people see, the less they will worry about what’s “right” or “wrong”, and more they will just worry about not getting caught. With some of the things going on in the world today, sometimes it’s kind of hard to blame them.
December 21st, 2007 at 8:19 pm
“They listened to each example, looking at me like I was nuts.”
That’s probably because you are.
December 24th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
lack of morality, perhaps, or just apathy. I’ve taken classes where the teacher has had to threaten pop quizzes and tests just to get a bare minimum of student participation.
It could also be people losing respect for an area of the law that has become corrupt with lobbyist dollars. Most of the changes to copyright law in the 20th century have been to please large copyright holders, like the Hollywood movies studios. The length of copyright was conveniently (with much lobbying from Disney) extended retroactively when Mickey Mouse was about pass into the public domain.