P2P

Well, the MPAA and RIAA and such succeeded again. They managed to get suprnova, one of the biggest sites sharing movies and such, shut down. Previously when sites like this got shut down, they took down the legit uses too. This loss isn't as important as the others, as it leaves the valid and legal users of bittorrent unaffected. The real issue I'm going to talk about is WHY users like myself prefer to use P2P networks to using services like iTunes and Napster.

The root of the problem is not when iTMS and the others were introduced. If they were introduced the day the internet was born, it would still be a problem. The real problem is DRM. DRM has multiple fundamental problems making it an unattractive item to purchase.

DRM removes the rights from the consumer. This means they cannot use the media files in any way they like. If I want to use it in a media player which isn't made or licensed or approved or whatever by the company who sold me the music, I can't play it. The players for the most part do allow you to burn a certain number of CDs or transfer it to a certain amount of devices or whatever, but that means a couple of things. 1) I'm limited to what devices they choose I can play it on. 2) I'm limited to how many CDs I can make.

Lets go to the next level up from the record companies. CDs. Audio CDs were great. They basically had a universal standard, and I can take any CD I like and play it on any CD player or any portable music player (that takes CDs; and if it didn't, I can put the CD in my computer, rip the song, and put it on my portable media player) I want. I don't have to worry about anyone approving it or not. CDs were great and you could even preview them in stores many times, but the real problem was that I can't pick and choose the songs I want and I can't get them from the convience of my own home, which isn't taking advantage of any of the new technologies. That of course is not a big deal, but I'd prefer just to buy what I want.

Well, then there is the P2P networks. The great thing about this is I can choose exactly what I want and it comes without restrictions. I can copy it to as many CDs as I want, play it in my car, play it in my portable media player of choice (well, not of choice for me, of cheapness rather since it doesn't support any format but MP3) and heck, any media player on my desktop! If I go buy a song from iTMS I'm stuck playing it in iTunes. I'm limited to the versions of iTunes that support it on the operating systems iTunes supports. Thats not a very good thing. The day the music labels offer DRM-free music where I can do everything I mentioned, well, thats when I'll start buying music online, and I highly recommend against purchasing music online until that happens. Any method of obtaining music is better then that IMO. Its giving up the freedom that you've had for a long time and have done nothing to deserve to lose it.