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p2p news / p2pnet: Earlier today I posted Torrential Reign, an excellent (I thought) feature on Bram Cohen, the man who wrote BitTorrent.
The article, by Dan Roth, a senior Fortune editor, first appeared in Fortune and I re-published it in full with Dan’s knowledge and approval.
I had a couple of quite pleasant emails, one from a lawyer, saying they enjoy p2pnet but I, “ought to be careful about publishing complete items,” even if I did link back to the original.
I’ve had emails like this before and I usually just respond with a reply. But today there was also an anonymous comment saying, “this isn’t an original news story. Google ever finds out about this and you’ll be delisted forever”. So I thought a post might be a good idea.
I should tip-toe around Google? Heh. But that apart, here’s the way it works for p2pnet which is, I emphasise, a non-entrepreneurial site supported by advertisements which both keep it online and keep myself and my family going.
I run p2pnet alone, I’m here 24/7, and I write quite a few stories myself either starting from scratch, or following up on something I’ve already noted or written about.
Payment:
I don’t bring in enough to pay for stories, even from regular writers. However, I plan to change that as soon as I possibly can and I’m working on it. Everyone - musicians, film-makers, everyone - deserves to be paid.
News Stories:
I’m on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, in the Pacific time zone and every morning at around 4:00 AM I log on and start looking for potential posts. Unlike many sites, I don’t merely cut-and-paste. When I write an item, I’m always very careful to name the source(s) repeatedly throughout, and to have a second link with the headline, date and url at the bottom of my item.
Submissions:
Submissions is the wrong word. It suggests I pick and choose from what comes in. I’m always extremely grateful when someone troubles to send me a story and nine times out of ten, I use it. And my edits are always minimal.
Regular contributors:
If you see an item with the name of the author in bold at the bottom, a link to the author’s site and a mini-bio, it means the person concerned has said it’s fine for me to include his or her work on a regular basis.
Now-and-again (sometimes one-off) contributors:
An intro written by me followed by a bold headline, an italicised by-line and a link usually means I’ve seen an item which I don’t think lends itself to excerpts. So to retain the full flavour, I contact the author saying I’d really like to use the whole piece rather than bits and pieces, and that I’m hoping that’ll be OK. Torrential Reign is typical of this kind of approach.
I believe the time to get people to read is when they’re reading. Asking them to go to another site ‘for the rest’ seems counter-productive, and doesn’t always work. On the other hand, they’ll usually go there once they’ve read the piece in full.
I treat items emailed in (as with David Faiman’s story) and papers in the same way.
Meanwhile ….
To me, the message is what’s important, which is why p2pnet is published under a Creative Commons license. Our logo says ‘People to People’ and that’s where it’s at.
The Net is about sharing and there’s nothing more important to share than information.
Cheers! And all the best …
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
October 18th, 2005 at 8:32 pm
This is an excellent site jon, keep up the good work
October 18th, 2005 at 8:39 pm
I have noticed quite a few non-lamescream sites that have been back burnered by Google - p2pnet.net included. This is one of the main reasons why I backburnered Google as far as a news source. I also observed Google referencing several “news” sites that contain almost exactly the same text, so this excuse for weeding out a source due to sameness is just that - a lame excuse. I can’t prove this, but it is likely Google was pressured by one of its lamescream advertisers.
Anyway, why does p2pnet.net need Google when it has built a reputation in its own right? I post links to p2pnet in blogs all over the Net. I can see why less travelled spaces on the Net need Google, but p2pnet has become a landmark.
Way to go, Jon!!!
October 18th, 2005 at 9:54 pm
quote
“Asking them to go to another site ‘for the rest’ seems counter-productive, and doesn’t always work.”
Doesn’t work for me at all. Allow me to expand on this thought. Anyone that isn’t a newbee to the web knows that there are sites out there that aren’t entirely honest nor do they have at heart any thing other than how to make a buck.
These are the sites that will load your browser with spycookies, spyware, malware and all the other little horrors of the net. Rarely will I go to such a site. I pretty much know what to find here, I don’t there without showing up. By the time you have connected to the site and the page is loaded, so is your spyware if you hit one of those less than honest sites. Far safer to stay in a place you know than take a chance, day after day. Odds are against you and sooner or later you will blunder into such a site.
I know Jon isn’t linking us with the idea of supplying spyware but for the service of showing source, as any good site would do. Just by being at this site over the long haul, you get to know methods and what is considered common practice to a site. What Jon can’t be responcible for or even always know is what will show up when the readership starts accessing a page source in numbers. Any dishonest site would have it clear for his appearance and then prepared after his check for the readership.
October 18th, 2005 at 10:40 pm
i don’t often get the chance to say this publicly, because jon knows how i feel. but since the subject has been brought up publicly…
i was told about p2pnet earlier this year as a reliable p2p news site, and it turned out to be true. as an independent site, free from cartel censorship, and one which allows its readers to active take part, i stuck around and started to post comments.
soon after that, jon invited me to join him as p2pnet’s official roving reporter. he has been a great inspiration to me in my writings, teaching me in the finer points of journalism, helping me form good relationships with contacts, and basically letting me write whatever i want - when i want (always “No Rush” he tells me) as well as being influencial to me personally.
everything he wrote above is true. as we have 9 hours between us, i’ve often sent him an email in my afternoon, thinking it’ll be some time before i get a reply. but within a few minutes, i get an email from him. damn! he’s already up working before the birds! i don’t know how he does it - banging out so many stories - and they are not ALL cut/paste jobs. maybe 1 out of 10 - but he always introduces and explains them thoroughly, which is not at all characteristic of other, larger sites which purport to “report” the news.
i’m completely against so-called personal “blogs”. they mostly cause a lot of trouble, and rarely are interesting. i’m glad p2pnet isn’t a personal blog, and keeps to the real stories and information that the lamers won’t touch. even some of the larger sites only do cut and paste jobs, then just wait for the comments to come in. that’s not journalism - that’s a message board.
jon is here 7 days/week for anyone who cares to read, listen and learn the truth. between p2pnet and the other sites he writes for, and juggling being a stay-at-home dad, homeschooling his daughter, and everything else he has to do to make ends meet (jon, i won’t mention the kettle drums
), jon deserves a hella lot of respect from anyone who visits p2pnet - even the ANONYMOUS COWARDS who occasinally stop by. 
i know he isn’t in this for the money. if he was, the site would be totally different. i would donate money for his costs if i could. he knows that.
thanks jon, for letting me be part of p2pnet.
October 19th, 2005 at 8:26 am
Everyday, it’s getting on my nerves.
Let me tell you what I am doing. I LEGALLY purchased MANY CDs, and since I don’t use a CD player (instead have an mp3/ogg player since it is smaller and more portable, longer play times) I encode them.
but here are some of the COMMON nuiances I encounter.
(1) Some DRM prevent me from CONVERTING to a format I can use…. It just either wont rip or encode….
(2) Other CDs DRM I can “bypass” but when I listen to it, it has FUCKEN STATIC (parden my language, I’m REALLY pissed off now!!!!) so that when I play it on my mp3 player it has (a) pops, (b) white static noise, (c) crackle…. not the Rice Krispies sound, REALLY annoying shit!!!!!
(3) Other DRM won’t even play PROPERLY on a REGULAR CD player… WTF??????????
Sorry to bring this up, but right now I have spend over a FRIGGEN 2 WEEKS trying to update/convert my CD collection so that I CAN LISTEN TO THEM…..
…………. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I HATE THE RIAA / MPAA with a PASSION. If you have experienced the same DRM SHIT, I’d like to hear from you. I’m a normally a very patient person, but ENOUGH is enough……. ;(
October 19th, 2005 at 8:39 am
Who cares about google. p2pnet is higher on my favorites then google ever will be. I find this site one of the better news sites for filesharing or tech in general. Ive sometimes ventured over to Slyck and the new SN, but they fail in comparison. Im glad I found this site. I could care less about if a hole story from a nother news source gets posted here. The credit and links to the original are always there. Even when a mistake or inaccuracy is found p2pnet steps up and fixes it with appoligies. To Jon and the others, keep up the good work. Geez, awake at 4am…….thats dedication.
October 19th, 2005 at 9:25 am
Buy the cd download a copy.
October 19th, 2005 at 9:46 am
Like I have enough work to do, but I know that there’s probably new posts to check out.
October 19th, 2005 at 10:31 am
This is one of the reasons DRM isn’t going to float in the long run, no matter what the cartels demand. You the paying customer are finding the DRMed files are more hassel than they are worth. Paying to be legal isn’t all that it is cracked up to be when the hassels of doing right don’t equal a payoff of being satisfied with the product.
quote:
“Other DRM won’t even play PROPERLY on a REGULAR CD player… WTF??????????”
I would be willing to bet it isn’t a cd. May look like one, may be packaged like one, but I imagine there is one thing missing on the jewel case. That is the logo of the official cd. What you have doesn’t meet the standards to be a cd and that is why the logo is missing. If this is the case, the object you have is very slightly thinner than what cd manufacturing standards call for. It also doesn’t meet the playability standards (redbook) that having the cd logo requires. Sony had a big todo over this with the DRMed files that won’t play in a regular cd player and told the cartels to either bring it back to the standard or remove the logo. The cartels expect you to be a good little consumer and go buy a new player to play them with. Next year or the one following they will change something and you will be expected to buy yet another new player to go along with the repurchase of all those cds that change standards. I sort of fell out of this game long ago and got a reel to reel. No matter the format, I can always record a backup into whatever format it is without having to hassel with DRM.
I didn’t have to spend money to find out what you are finding out. I read reports and articles mentioning these very issues. There is nothing today they are selling I want. I would not be happy with the purchase, I dislike being robbed on overcharging, I don’t agree with the limitations which turn it into a rental, not a purchase, the product hasn’t the quality I am accustom to, and I refuse to buy a new player everytime the cartels think some other format or anticopy is the hit of the season. On the whole it is an unsatisfactory product I can neither use nor do I want.
October 19th, 2005 at 12:05 pm
Just like you, I happen to find this site… And since I found it both informative and refreshing (free from Lamestream tripe) I continue to frequent it. Others have commented how it is “addictive”, but addictive in the positive sense — like being addictive to exercise, or air, or the truth.
Big and important things start off as humble beginnings. p2pnet.net will be a beacon of inspiration and hope. It will spawn new leaders in the future, leaders who are not content will being manipulated into mindless-consumers but leaders who will forge a new digital future. A digital future that encourages every member of society to participate in creating works of art (be it music, pictures/graphics, or video) and to share it with their fellow citizen. It is the community that is being formed as we speak, a world community built on mutual respect and compassion.
This is the future I look forward to. This is the future I am helping build. And p2pnet.net just makes it a lot easier.
October 19th, 2005 at 5:13 pm
I switched to Linux. I can now rip just about any CD I want. I have friends bring CD’s to my house for me to rip because the DRM messes with their machine. I also have a standard CD player with patch cords connected to the input of my sound card. There is not much that I cannot copy or rip. I do this as a service for them. I do not even retain a copy for myself (even when offered) because I find most commercial stuff to be utter crap!
October 19th, 2005 at 8:54 pm
True, it is utter crap. It hurts my ears to hear such tripe on “professional radio”…. It’ll be nice if there could be a system where the ordinary joe could broadcast over the air (without the red-tape regulatory “approval”)…. one can dream….
October 20th, 2005 at 11:06 am
Jon
Keep up the good work =) those of us who are habitual (at least daily if not more frequent) readers truly enjoy your refreshing perspective and continued dedication to providing insightful topics which are “uninfluenced” by the main stream media.
Someone has to continue to keep us informed or reality and your effort is sincerely appreciated =)
Zathras
October 20th, 2005 at 8:06 pm
I also add my thanks to Jon for this site. I keep coming back even if I don’t manage to keep up with all the stories (notice how I am two days behind already).
I must admit I was initially surprised when Jon republished my entire article [1] rather than just linking to it but then thought ‘why not’, it was already freely available on the net. Then I realised that it was initially published under a CC license that meant there was even less reason for Jon not to reproduce it. So I say thanks and keep going.
[1] http://p2pnet.net/story/6358
October 20th, 2005 at 8:24 pm
I should mention that I asked Nicholas if I COULD post the entire article before I actually did : )
Cheers!