New Music Player to Spread Files Wirelessly 222
PontifexPrimus writes "A new P2P / media player project could allow mobile music devices to automatically transfer media files from other players running the same software. While there seems to be a certain risk (mislabeling files, creating intentionally corrupt songs) there also seems to be a huge potential to this idea (get on the subway to work and when you arrive there your available music has doubled). Of course, this also is a nightmarish scenario for the RIAA-like organizations, especially since such swapping occurs without active user participation, in a drive-by way."
Re:No Thanks.. (Score:1, Insightful)
give me my bright eyes, pantera, black flag, mars volta, tilly and the wall....death cab for cutie,..dredg.
fool.
Re:Nightmare my ass! (Score:3, Insightful)
"Officer, arrest this man, he's carrying a murder weapon."
Oh, you mean it's not illegal to carry something that could be used illegally? Damn the constitution! (Murder weapon in this case is a hammer that "this man" is carrying home from Home Depot to hang a picture on the wall.)
Push vs pull (Score:4, Insightful)
Current P2P is strictly pull. You select what you want, and get it from (wherever). Having random people push random stuff on to my hardware? Not a chance.
Would you allow someone to do this with your PC? Didn't think so. Remember that when you connect your new mp3 player to the USB port.
A potentially good idea, but we all know there is a tiny minority who will screw it up. Badly.
Re:if they were ubiquitous (Score:4, Insightful)
>
>Do YOU go to work for free?
Yes I do. There are a load of things I do for no monetary reward that others get paid for, the same is probably true for most people. Some people get paid for writing out their opinions in print, for one example.
Music predates copyright by a few thousand years. People didn't need copyright to write or play it before, they don't need it now. Writing and playing music is fun and rewarding in and of itself, and there are plenty of ways that musicians have been financially supported in the past without copyright.
By the logic you put forward nobody would play sports anymore if you took away the professional leagues.
And this is just the start of it... (Score:3, Insightful)
The beauty of this sort of system is that, designed well, you'd be able to program your device to "listen out" for things you're currently interested in (this would rely on files being tagged with a bit more meta data than we get in current IDV3 tags etc.) With some sort of AI algorithm processing the tags you could also optionally allow the "pickup new music" function to take you off into new avenues of sonic exploration (Hmm... think I'll set the "weirdness factor" to 3 today). Hell I never knew how much I liked Bulgarian throat singing until I heard some on a radio station whilst cooking my tea
One thing's for sure though you'd soon find more good music than you'd probably have time to listen to - unless in the future you can get paid for being a "music filter" for a third paty (when most manufacturing ia automated new jobs will come into being...) And with digital transmission of the data the days of artificially induced shortages are over (ooh look, limited edition of 100 copies on BLUE VINYL !!!!)
So you make available what you please and passing people pick up what they please from you. Everyone gets to hear more music.
And what of the poor musicians I hear you say. In the future more bands will make more money than they do today from live performances, personal appearances, writing bespoke music for social events etc. etc. In an interconnected world there is now more opportunity for musicians/sound sculptors to both create works and to get paid for it. Admittedly there'll probably be less battery farmed, multi millionaire musicians producing trite pap (a la Britney Crap etc.) but there'll be more musicians earning a living.
Meanwhile the cavemen at the *AA etc. still just simply don't get it and are attempting to keep things going using their 1920s business paradigm.
Ho hum. Bring it on.
Re:if they were ubiquitous (Score:1, Insightful)
I'd argue that the person who cannot create good music without a good sound engineer is not a good musician at all.
Routing? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm fairly sure any kind of ad-hoc mesh network with any type of standard routing protocol would be brought to its knees by the frequency of connection change.
Re:Who really thinks this is a great idea? (Score:4, Insightful)
That's exactly why VCRs are illegal! Because people could use them to commit copyright infringment!
Oh wait, no. You're an idiot. This whole issue was resolved twenty years ago in the Sony v. Betamax supreme court ruling. This is perfectly legal and it is a good idea for the exact same reason VCRs are legal and a good idea.
Yes people could decide to commit copyright infringment. So fucking what?
I have an entire folder on my computer of public domain / Creative Commons MP3 songs. The people manyfacturing this product have every right to sell it to me, and I have every right to load those files onto the product and to distribute and redistribute those files to anyone and everyone.
Of course, the second this moves from simply audio to pictures and/or video, you could wind up with other illegal content (i.e. child porn) on your player, just by walking by someone with a similiar device who so-happens to be a pervert.
Yeah, and?
Someone can mail child porn into your mailbox. And they could put a flyer with child porn under your car windshield. And they could hand you a free innocent-looking magazine on the street as you walk by, with child porn on page 8.
Someone could choose to commit copyright infringment using or to distribute child porn with it. Just as they could use a Xerox machine to do the same things.
And whenever you find files on it that you don't want... whether it is simply crappy music or child porn or whatnot, then you delete it. And no, you are not violating any laws if someone sticks child porn into your mailbox or broadcasts it onto your device and you had no idea about it.
The answer is simple. They have the right to sell it and you have the right to buy it, and YOU are responsible not to intentionally violate any laws.
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Re:Push vs pull (Score:4, Insightful)
TiVO users accept it. Radio listeners accept it. iRate users desire it. Aren't the same type of people buying music devices too?
Re:if they were ubiquitous (Score:3, Insightful)
Before copyright laws, however, there weren't easy ways to duplicate music either. Recording devices didn't exist, and neither did photocopiers.
Re:No Thanks.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Push vs pull (Score:3, Insightful)
A single format, from a single source company.
Radio listeners accept it.
soundwaves. No actual files.
iRate users desire it.
Closer, but still a central point of contact.
Seriously...would YOU allow your hardware to accept random files from random people on the street? I wouldn't.
And neither will the sheep, after the first drive-by virus outbreak.