What p2pnet is about
p2pnet.net:- Since I started p2pnet a couple of years back, I’ve had people asking me why I bother and when the story on the latest installment of the RIAA’s sue ‘em all campaign went up, I had quite a few more inquiries (not to mention several suggesting interesting ways for me to otherwise occupy my time ; )
Some people have the idea I’m using p2pnet to get rich. Others think the p2p operators pay me.
Neither is true. Although I’m really grateful for the support I get from the p2p app guys, they have zero to do with what I write and neither their ads nor the Google boxes even start to cover my costs.
And as to getting rich ……………
I have a wife, an eight-year-old daughter named Emma, a mortgage, six budgies, two finches, a cockatiel, a cat, a very large dog and a gas-guzzling vehicle to support. I’ve been publishing p2pnet full time for a little over a year, 24/7, and a little while back, we took out a bank loan to keep going.
So why do I bother?
Simple. I really enjoy doing p2pnet and fortunately, my wife, Liz, is behind me.
Cash Cows no longer
Before the CyberSpace came along, I wouldn’t have had a snowball’s chance in hell of being able to make myself heard on issues I felt strongly about. ‘Letters to the editor” don’t achieve much and public protests on anything other than a massive scale aren’t usually effective, even if I’d wanted to go marching.
The Net changes the scenario.
With it, ordinary people such as you and I reach millions of other ordinary people and together, we form immensely powerful international blocks and think-tanks.
We’re the cash-cows contemptuously called ‘consumers’ and we’ve grown used to being told what to do and not to ask awkward questions.
Not any more. Online, we’re back to being people. Customers. And the customer is always right.
For the first time in history, staggeringly huge numbers of us can communicate with each other. Instantly.
P2p is being attacked ostensibly because it’s being used to move movies and music files around. But the real danger from the corporate perspective is: p2p allows people to share information, and information, not money, is the currency and the power of the 21st century.
Businesses and governments have grown used to dictating what happens, and where and when, because they’ve always had exclusive and complete control of the flow of information.
Gutenberg turned the world into a series of loosely connected villages. The Lynotype and, later, the broadcast and print media, tightened the villages into easily manipulated and controlled information networks and radio, television and the print became the tools of business and government everywhere.
But online in the 21st century, the media and the message are one and the same thing and corporate and government interests know if they’re to maintain the status quo, they must now find ways to dominate CyberSpace and the Net in the same way they dominate the mainstream print and electronic media outlets.
File swapping and file sharing are just the tip of the ice-berg.
Every day more and more people are hooking into the Net. Men, women and children have become their own reporters and the world is being pollinated with startling new ideas.
Soon, a critical mass will be reached and this terrifies the Powers that Used to Be.
It’s a whole new world, and a brave one, and thanks to p2p and the Net, you and I are making a difference.
That’s why I bother.
Cheers! And all the best …
==================
See:-
sue ‘em all – RIAA sues another 762, p2pnet, October 1, 2004
October 3rd, 2004 at 1:29 am
Hey! Go get a job!
- Liz
hehehe
October 3rd, 2004 at 4:15 am
Keep the good work.
I like my daily visit here to get the latest news.
A Canadian friend.
October 4th, 2004 at 12:02 am
yeah keep on. p2pnet’s the only news site i know writing about p2p on a daily basis.
)
(if you don’t understand what i say, nevermind,that’s ok, i’m french.
Luc
October 4th, 2004 at 12:48 am
I’ve missed a few but I’ve been watching p2pnet grow for quite a while. I think it’ll eventually be a a big site – (if it survives ;- )
October 4th, 2004 at 1:05 am
It’s truly sickens me to see you try to humanize yourself after all the work you have done to dehumanize creative people by encouraging others to wantonly destroy their hopes, their dreams, their opportunities. I guess you think that artists, musicians, songwriters and the hundreds of thousands to people around the world that are employed to support their efforts, don’t have wives, don’t raise children, don’t have mortgages, don’t have day to day problems… These people don’t even exist in your close minded little world. The RIAA is your target… the people that toil in the fields to create and deliver music to the world are your victims. You don’t care. Right? Screw ‘em! You are, without a doubt, one of the most selfish, self absorbed waists of protoplasm walking the earth. P2P technology is not the problem. People like you who rev others up to use P2P to break the law are the problem. You, and others like you, are the ones that necessitate that legal action be taken against infringers. It doesn’t have to be that way. The real work that needs to get done is to find a way for those in the creative community to get paid for their work. When that happens, everything becomes legal… users will no longer be infringers; and, the RIAA will no longer be called upon to protect the rights of those who are willing to invest in discovering, encouraging and supporting the creators who make the music the world craves. But, encouraging something positive like that would defeat your need to be in the spotlight no matter who you hurt, wouldn’t it? Your bully pulpit and evil purpose would vanish over night. And you would be forced, as Liz suggests, to ‘get a job.’ Do something worthwhile with your life for a change – something that will benefit the world … do what Liz suggests.
October 4th, 2004 at 5:43 am
Well here’s another ass clown defending the music biz with all it’s wonderful ways to do biz.Like price fixing the price of cd’s. Music biz has been caught twice in the last 5 years doing it. Let’s not forget Payola what a lovely way to keep any artists that are not Riaa off the radio. We can’t begin to tell you about all the lousy record contracts that screw the artists with back charges for recording time to production cost for a video to a drink of water and so on. How could p2p be so cruel to even think about knocking such a wonderful bunch of business men who buy off senators and congress people so they can keep their strangle hold on what they want us to hear in the music world today!!!!!! This is what you are defending??????? Major label’s are the ones who dehumanize and destroy the hopes and dreams of people not Jon Newton. He only tells the truth about what’s going down with bunch of vipers!!!!!
October 4th, 2004 at 6:37 pm
One of the reasons I wrote this in the first place was because of ‘comments’ from a couple of other people such as you. They didn’t trouble to sign their names either.
Cheers!
October 4th, 2004 at 10:41 pm
This nasty post has RIAA written all over it. It didn’t come from a “reader” of the site.
You’re pushing the right buttons. Keep up the good work!
October 4th, 2004 at 10:45 pm
There’s a problem with signing names. Comments made tend to show up on Google. I learned that the hard way, so I will always be anonymous.
Psst, I think you should go back to Anonymous instead of Reader’s Write.
October 4th, 2004 at 11:19 pm
You totally side stepped my point and regurgitated the same old, tired old crap that justifies, in your mind, your right to destroy other people’s lives. You’ve been lead to believe that hurting artists is O.K. because that’s what record companies do. What kind of convoluted thinking is that? That’s like saying … criminals murder people so it’s O.K. for me to murder people, too. Jon Newton fans the flames of misplaced hatred so idiots like you, who want to the unhindered ability to traffic in illegally gotten creative products, will follow his illogical, immoral, imbecilic spew to fulfill his desperate need for self aggrandizement. He does what he does to make himself feel important… you follow him out of sheer, ignorant, uncaring greed. I couldn’t care less if every record company in the world shut down tomorrow… But, even if they did, you would still be there to smother the hopes and dreams of those creative people who were still trying to hang on by stealing what they work so hard to offer no matter how incapable they were in defending themselves. Wouldn’t you? WOULDN’T YOU!! You don’t give a damn about what record companies do or don’t do … you only give a damn about yourself. I care about creators… you only care about snuffing their ability to earn a living to satisfy your selfish purposes. You’re the ass clown, pal, because you are allowing Jon Newton, and creeps like him, to think for you. My wish for you is that when you are old enough to get a job, every time you pick up your paycheck somebody steals it from you.
October 4th, 2004 at 11:31 pm
Thats a very bad argument against this site. You are saying that when this site fights against slavery that the music industry has become all you only hurt the slaves. The only way to fight slavery is to either make it illegal or to make an option for the slaves such that no one would ever enter such an agreement.
You say “The RIAA is your target… the people that toil in the fields to create and deliver music to the world are your victims.” but the RIAA long ago stoped being the protector of the music creators, those that toil in the fields, it became the protector of the publishers. As for destroying oppertunites. its well known that an average band would make more money working at 7-11 for a year than getting a album published by Big Music. While the publishers are an important step, they are becoming a redudant step.
You aslo say “The real work that needs to get done is to find a way for those in the creative community to get paid for their work” people are trying to do that. In a positive future no one buys cds anymore, everyone downloads the songs directly into a listening device of their choice and each time this happens the artist and songwriter get paid. There are plans for this stye of system but they are being fought because it would make most of the role of the Big Music publishers worthless.
Peer to peer technoligy might allow the creators of music to direclty paid for every time a song is downloaded bypassing the current music industry all together. Should a song be popular because someone pays $100,000 to have it played 100 times a day or because it can stand on its own with little or no marketing and be downloaded 100,000 times?
This site has run stoires about different versions of this type of system both the good and the bad. The current lawsuits that you are so proud of prove nothing other than if a big bully walks up to someone and says give me money the majority of people will.
October 5th, 2004 at 12:35 am
p2pnet gets a extreme sometimes, but that is what happens with people who are passionate about things – just as you obviously are.
But there is a difference. p2pnet stories are based on what is actually happening while your contribution is based on what the RIAA wants people to BELIEVE is happening. The sad thing that yu have swallowed it and so have a lot of others.
October 5th, 2004 at 3:56 am
Hey Ass Clown or should I say Riaa Lackey I don’t and repeat DON”T DOWNLOAD RIAA MUSACK!!!!!! I’m a part time musican I Play 3 different instruments Bass Drums and Guitar write my own songs and do all the vocals and I’m most likely older than you ass hole !!!!!! I’m sick and tired of hearing how all the artists are being hurt. It’s the major labels who are hurting the whole Music Ind. with the formentioned B.S. that they do to keep a strangle hold on the music biz today!!!!!! Would you like to hear some of my music you can do a search for “The We Be Jamin Band” thats MY group MY songs and you will see how I fight the Riaa with my MUSIC!!!!! You want to help these artists you care about so much ?????? Then join us to bring down the major labels and get their strangle hold off of the music biz!!!!!!! Help us to stop their OUR way or the HIGHWAY attitude!!!!! BOYCOTT THE RIAA!!!!!!!
October 6th, 2004 at 7:51 am
I don’t mind attaching my nom de plume to posts – in fact prefer it. There are some smart people here I’d actually like to “flap gums with” pretty hard when your “spike” “anne” “readers write” etc. I’ve had people tell me my moniker can be googled and are shocked when I don’t mind – I keep this “life” seperate from the real life I lead.
Though can understand why some are nervous.
October 6th, 2004 at 9:00 am
Know what bothers me? Trolls who post asinine comments such as yours.
Your completely missing the point. Artists get paid when they create an album – any money made after that is from being played on the air, on the net, by playing concerts – those are called royalties. You talk about how the RIAA is some knight in shining armour for the artist. Lets look at royalties shall we?
Sound Exchange is the organisation that collects royalties from music broadcast via web, satellite, cable music. Recently sound exchange announced if artists dont come forward and register with sound exchange they will lose anywhere between $10 and $6,000 (depending on the artist). Normally when collecting royalties and subsequently being unable to find the artist the monies are held in trust (refering to a USA law) not with this new american law (passed in the mid 90’s) nooo the RIAA gets to keep millions of dollars in revenue collected as royalties for the artists. I have a real problem with that. How can they know who to give the royalties to but can’t be bothered to find them and pay them?
lets go back a little further in history regarding royalties. Recently the New York state attorney ordered the record companies to pay $50 million dollars in royalties owed to artists after a two year investigation found that the record companies were failing to keep contact with their artists. “Sorry but we just can’t seem to find David Bowie and Willie Nelson is nowhere to be found” what bullshit.
lets go back to the beginning. When radio first appeared about 90 years ago radio stations aired records they had purchased for listeners. At the time you couldn’t record what was aired – you could only LISTEN to it. The RIAA (this was in its infancy) didn’t like the idea that money wasn’t being made from the broadcast of the album. Record companies started to stamp on the labels “not for radio broadcast” to try and stop this new technology from airing its product. Come on how dare anyone air something for free – there HAS to be a way to make money off of this. RIAA lobbied and eventually got their way. Radio stations now had to pay a royalty and they still do. So where was the harm, they were getting free advertising after all. Was this about protecting the artist? No – it was about protecting their bottom line and its been a downward spiral ever since.
For me this isn’t about “theft” of a song. This is about a CORPORATION that is actively lobbying governments around the world to create or modify copyright laws to suit their business INTERESTS. They want you to think it is about creativity and the artist and how concerned they are but the bottom line – truth is this is about MONEY.
If all goes as the RIAA plans in the USA the INDUCE Act will be marshalled in and that iPod you so dearly love? Gone. Streaming radio? Gone. Portable hard drives? Gone. Flickr. Jane magazine. Peer to Peer development kits. XM radio. All gone.
If the RIAA gets its way soon file sharers will go to jail and/or face fines for infringing on intellectual property.
If the RIAA gets its way soon broadcast flag will make it will be illegal to sell devices that can tune in digital television without imposing copy protection on the signal.
Where is the artist in all of this? From where I am standing it is a clear case of a bunch of corporations protecting their self interests. Plain as nose on face. Copyright law isn’t just for recording artists – have you forgotten that? It is also for painters, photographers, writers and anyone else who has created “intellectual property”.
To me this is tantamount to the idea that McDonalds would throw a hissy fit because the world isn’t purchasing 100% Real Beef as their source of ground beef and lobbying governments to force consumers to ONLY buy their product and throwing in a bunch of conditions which prevented the sale of any other ground beef product.
As for what Jon does – hats off to him. It takes time and energy to keep a site going day after day – finding news items worthy of mention. I know i run a blog myself. Most of the time it is a thankless job and trolls like you don’t help one bit. This site reports from the “left” if you don’t like the perspective find a site that reports from the “right” and happy trolling.
October 8th, 2004 at 3:58 am
Hi Anne:
You are quite articulate … problem is you are also clueless … you don’t know what you are talking about… nothing you say has any basis in fact… you are completely wrong … obviously you’ve been getting your information for p2pnet.net. But, I understand – you have to justify the fact that you are destroying the lives of others… corporations aren’t the issue here … the rights of people who create the music you love are the issue … you have no problem chewing them up and spitting them out – you’ll never meet them so they aren’t real to you – and, for sure, you will never meet those whose lives you flushed down the toilet before they even had a chance to give it a go – they’ve already given up their dreams thanks to you and people like you. Sleep well.
October 8th, 2004 at 4:27 am
I work with artists… great artists who will never get a chance because their opportunities are being snuffed by people stealing their product. You can’t eat if you don’t get paid. If everyone feels sorry for the artists because they believe the record companies are ripping them off how do they rationalize the fact that they, too, are taking food our of the mouths of artists and their families – doing exactly what they claim record companies are doing? Most artists aren’t millionaires… they struggle from day to day. They work hard in hopes of getting a record deal, and, if they do, they hope their record companies will stay with them long enough to make them household names so they have a chance at maintaining a career after their record deal comes to an end… (and, all record deals eventually do come to an end.) The sale of product determines how long a record deal lasts… every sale that is lost to illegal downloading lessens the artist’s chance of being able to take advantage of the marketing dollars labels spend that will provide artists with opportunities outside their recording careers – both short term and long term.
October 8th, 2004 at 4:31 am
Hey, your music sucks, pal. Don’t give up your day job.
October 10th, 2004 at 1:27 am
Reading over the heated exchange between Anne and “troll” got me thinking about WHY people make music. True, artists, like the rest of us, need to make a living – this obvious fact I respect. What I DO NOT respect is the emerging pop culture, epitomized by junk like Ashlee Simpson’s MTV reality show, which holds that an artist is not truly successful until he or she leads the “high life” – you know, a Gucci bag on every arm, and a chauffeured Bentley in every garage. This perverted, and clearly corporate-driven way of looking at things leads “troll” to believe that p2p signifies the end of musical creativity. He/she would have us believe that garage bands around the world are disbanding, laying down their guitars and amps, because their profit-making-prospects are now destroyed by Kazaa and Soulseek. What a sad indictment on “troll’s” notion of music and art this is. I say I don’t want to listen to the “music” of a profit-driven “artist” – these individuals aren’t even musicians as far as I am concerned and to be honest, I don’t care what happens to their income. Artists create music because they love it and they will continue to create music even if p2p drives them all to poverty (as if that is ever going to happen!).
- Akiva
P.S. Troll, here are some pearls of wisdom for you to mull over and possibly share with your boss at Sony:
When I was just a child, my life was, oh, so simple.
And the ways of the great world seemed strange and funny.
Then when I was a young man, I learned of that machine
that turns out all those bails of precious money.
Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money,
Ooo, that money machine.
Now you can measure you manhood by it. You can get your children to try it.
You can bring your enemies to their knees
with the possible exception of the North Vietnamese.
It takes a strong hit from the money machine, sitting on top, on top of the world.
Strong hit from the money machine, sitting on top, on top of the world.
Oh, General Motors and IBM. AFL-CIO and all the king’s men.
When I began the game, see me singing about the fire and rain.
Let me just say it again, I’ve seen fives and I’ve seen tens.
It was a strong hit from the money machine, sitting on top, on top of the world.
Strong hit from the money machine, sitting on top, on top of the world.
Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, ha ha ha.
Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money.
Give me that dough, give me that dough, give me that dough, give me that dough.
Been living in the lap of luxury too long. Please, Mr. DJ, won’t you play my song.
Maybe my baby will listen on the radio.
Come back home to me, help me spend my dough.
I need a strong hit from the money machine. Sitting on top, on top of the goddamn world.
Strong hit, babe, from the money machine, woo, sitting on top, on top of the world.
Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money.
Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money.
From that money machine.
January 25th, 2005 at 1:20 pm
Actually, she hit the nail right on the head. Please, would you be so kind to point out where exactly she is missing the facts?
Talking about facts… where are yours?
Practice what you preach.
January 25th, 2005 at 1:33 pm
Oh boy.
[quote]But, I understand – you have to justify the fact that you are destroying the lives of others… corporations aren’t the issue here … the rights of people who create the music you love are the issue … you have no problem chewing them up and spitting them out – you’ll never meet them so they aren’t real to you[unquote]
How on earth dare you to speak for all these people? Do you have the slightest idea how many artists (be they famous or not) speak out in favor of file-sharing? Can’t you realise that especially for small artists P2P poses a tremendous chance of getting heard apart from the usual distribution channels? Music which is worth to be bought, will always be bought, regardless of how many digital copies are freely available on P2P-Networks. Same applies to Movies… it isn’t the same watching Independence Day in the theatre than watching it at home.
It’s the RIAA, IFPI and all the other lobbies that are hurting (and chewing, and spitting out) the artists in the first place. There is too much focus on business, and far too less on the art which is being created.
Bottom line: If this page isn’t useful to you, let it be, don’t visit it, ignore it. There are enough other websites (riaa.com?) that might be more suitable for your interest.