Post #3328 by Swanky on Fri, Jul 5, 2002 7:22 AM

As an online broadcaster, all this is of vital importance to me. The idea that it's stealing is only true as long as the DMCA stands and there is some movement in Congress to end it.

You don't pay GM when you buy a used car, you don't pay Capitol when you buy a used CD. There are things to be said along those lines. I can't say too much here. The soap box isn't where I am on this board.

But, here is the catch of it all. The majority of users of file swapping are 20-40 year old guys looking for obscure music. this is a fact (studies prove it). So a service only becomes useful if it's huge enough to have all this obscure stuff. So no one will pay for a service because it won't have anything on it. It has to be free to be worth joining.

Once any site gets to that critical mass, it will get shut down. So, what is needed is a place for people to share more specific stuff maybe. I don't know.

Personally, I do not share much of my obscure stuff. I'm stingy. I have recorded a lot of vinyl, and I may be one of a very small number who own an mp3 of "The Waikiki Boys - On the Beach at Waikiki - Hawaiian Holiday" or whatever. I'll share with some people, but not everyone. I don't know why. I put a lot of work into it, that's why. But the original artists did too. So that explains their view.

The problem boils down to finding a way to charge people an amount they can live with, and that doesn't kill the sharing industry. Let's face it, I may download 30 songs, and keep 3. Why do I pay for 30? I can listen at the used CD store and even the new CD store for free.

Where do I swap files? audiognome.com It's not nearly as easy to use as the others. But I am dealing with it.