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WinMX Suspends Operations
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Wed Sep 21, 2005 04:04 PM
from the i'll-take-non-extradition-ip's-for-500-alex dept.
from the i'll-take-non-extradition-ip's-for-500-alex dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Slyck.com is reporting that it appears the WinMX network has shut down its operations in response to the RIAA's letters threating legal action. Although the WinMX network is currently down, this may only be temporary as developers seem to have relocated from Canada to Port Villa, Vanuatu."
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Pertinent Links: (Score:5, Informative)
Some information about Vanuatu, as well as its capital, Port Vila (misspelled in TFA) can be found here [wikipedia.org] and here [cia.gov].
As for why WinMX might want to relocate there, this link [vanuatugovernment.gov.vu] should shed a little light on the issue...
Re:Pertinent Links: (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Pertinent Links: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Pertinent Links: (Score:2)
Re:Pertinent Links: (Score:3)
Re:Pertinent Links: (Score:4, Insightful)
"It should be especially hilighted that Kazaa has already moved to Vanuatu, so the island clearly has decent internet connectivity in place already."
Just to be clear... that's where Sharman Networks is headquartered for tax purposes. They don't have servers there. There are probably a dozen outfits on Vanuatu that'll set up a PO box for you and forward your mail.
Running afoul of the Berne Convention or local copyright laws was probably never a reason for Sharman's setting up in Vanuatu -- you can generally be nailed in any country in which you do business, regardless of the address printed on your articles of incorporation.
Parent
Re:Pertinent Links: (Score:2)
Tax haven? Not for long..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure it is very interesting. But I wonder what will happen if every p2p company takes refuge in Vanuatu. The laws specifically prohibit pornography and don't even think about applying if you've got money laundering on your mind. U.S. can easily pressurize a country of the size of Republic of Vanuatu to extend their laws to prohibit sharing copyright work!
Parent
Re:Tax haven? Not for long..... (Score:5, Funny)
Might come in useful if the tectonic plates ever get a bit slippery...
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Re:Tax haven? Not for long..... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Tax haven? Not for long..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Tax haven? Not for long..... (Score:3, Funny)
sounds like they need to have democracy brought to them.
oh wait...
Re:Tax haven? Not for long..... (Score:4, Insightful)
extend their laws to prohibit sharing copyright work!
First of all you are making the FALSE assumption that P2P companies are sharing copyrighted works. P2P software companies no more "share copyrighted works" than E-mail software companies "share copyrighted works". In fact e-mail software is one of the original forms of P2P software.
Secondly, aside from the extensive body of copyright free materials, you are making a blanket assumption that sharing copyrighted works is inherently improper. There is also an extensive body of copyrighted works that are authorized for unrestricted or conditional distribution. If you want to complain about people who commit copyright infringment, well ok fine. However these companies are not commiting copyright infringment.
P2P software - including EMAIL - can be used to send or receive anything. E-mail and FTP and webserver software are all explicitly designed to distribute files. Software authors and software publishers should not be under assault.
-
Parent
Re:Pertinent Links: (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Pertinent Links: (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Pertinent Links: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Pertinent Links: (Score:3, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for
Re:Pertinent Links: (Score:5, Funny)
As for why WinMX might want to relocate there from Canada, this link [lonelyplanet.com] should also shed a little light on the issue...
Parent
Welcome to Fantasy Island! (Score:5, Funny)
Tattoo: Bozz, bozz, ze plane, ze plane!
Mr. Roarke: Yes, Tattoo. Let us go meet our guests.
Tattoo: Who are zey, bozz?
Mr. Roarke: They are wanted criminals and nihilists. They have come here to set up an illicit P2P network.
Tattoo [rubbing hands together]: Ooh, I cannot wait see what you have in store for them, bozz. And who are those people, bozz?
Mr. Roarke: They from the Recording Industry Association of America.
Tattoo: Why zem, bozz?
Mr. Roarke: Let's just say, Tattoo, that I enjoy putting spiders and flies in small jars together. [arms out to guests] Welcome to Fantasy Island!
Parent
WOAH (Score:5, Funny)
Are they planning to live there too? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Are they planning to live there too? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:You have to catch them first. (Score:4, Insightful)
"We have every reason to believe that this tiny island country is harboring terrorist agents of Al-qaeda, and is developing weapons of mass destruction to threaten its neighbors with."
Parent
Reminiscence (Score:2, Interesting)
Survival of the fittest, I guess!
Does anyone consider WinMX safe anyway? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Does anyone consider WinMX safe anyway? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
I remember it too (Score:2)
Re:Does anyone consider WinMX safe anyway? (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.docsdownloads.com/Tier1/winmx.htm [docsdownloads.com]
From winmx.com cache:
"WinMX from winmx.com does not contain ANYTHING besides WinMX.
No spyware or other parasite programs will ever be in our software. We respect your privacy and security."
ScuttleMonkey == Michael? (Score:2, Interesting)
Doubt it... (Score:5, Informative)
No, the address on their domain name registration has been been relocated to Vanuatu. I very much doubt that developers themselves would move to Vanuatu over a barely-operational P2P scheme. If you're going to do make a move like that, there are much nicer places in the South Pacific.
Run away... (Score:2, Funny)
Google Maps (Score:5, Informative)
Someone update wiki for Vanuatu (Score:3, Funny)
The economy is based primarily on subsistence or small-scale agriculture, which provides a living for 65% of the population, and online advertising thanks to sweaty nerds downloading free mp3s with WinMX and visiting the WinMX website which provides tribalfusion popups.
United Nations of RIAA (Score:4, Insightful)
Furthermore, WinMX is freeware. I presume the author made no money from it. Regardless, why is the RIAA challenging this poor guy on the grounds that he has broken another country's laws?
Well that's it.. (Score:4, Funny)
Dear RIAA,
I officially give up. This is the straw the finally broke the camel's back (it always seems to be the LAST straw that does this - hrmph). I will officially renounce my intent on pirating media, software, pr0n, and the like. I am currently burning my PC to stop enabling me to do bad things (did you guys patent the phrase "If thy eye offends, pluck it out; if they hand does wrong chop it off"?). Additionally, I will re-buy all my purchased media again - just in case some where along the line it was pirated. I can not take the pressure anymore - too many people have been hurt because of my negligence. Please oh please just call off the dogs before more people are hurt. With this latest action you have successfully reached critical mass of the "Piracy == Bad" meme, and people will understand. Thank you for your service in showing humanity where it went wrong, and that the red pill is not for us. To make it up to you, I will pay double for my CDs, send you a dozen roses every week, and mow your lawn. Please, take me back! I want to be loved again. I really didn't know I was hurting you like that baby. Sugar, you got to believe me!
xoxoxo
- modi
I wish to extend a welcome to the new media overlords. May they use their infinite wisdom to safe guard freedom and the natural order of things.
A new nation (Score:2)
Im sure that countries like China wouldnt care about US sanctions against this new country, so if secured near the mainland it would be easy to get supplies and keep things running smoothly.
Not to say that filesharing is shady business, but I am surprised that this sort of thing hasnt happened already by some criminal organizations or large-scale pirating rings. Perhaps there is an obvious answer to
New Government? (Score:4, Funny)
Vanatu seems like a really nice place to live. I found this on their government's news site [vanuatugovernment.gov.vu]:
Vanuatu has a new Government. Please revisit this site next week
Survivor: Return to Vanuatu.. (Score:5, Funny)
Its Still Legal in Canada (Score:5, Interesting)
Its strange that the RIAA would bother sending a letter to a Canadian company.
Music is quite legal (until the government changes the law) to download in Canada. It is most likely legal to have it available for download too, provided that you are not "distributing", which seems to require active promotion.
I would think software developers would be one step further removed from that. Good luck to the RIAA pressing their case in Canada under the current law. CRIA was already stupid enough to take it to the Federal Court http://www.cippic.ca/en/projects-cases/file-sharin g-lawsuits/ [cippic.ca] and lose.
As a Vanuatu-based geek... (Score:5, Informative)
...Perhaps I can offer a little bit of background.
I've been living and working in Vanuatu for the last two years, and have some experience in the IT sector here. So let me try and provide a little perspective.
First, the vanuatugovernment.vu website is NOT the official government website. It was put together by some less-than-reputable individuals who took advantage of their connections with certain politicians to try to sell 'honorary consulships' to 'independant businessmen'. Basically, this is a way of making money from the sale of diplomatic passports. Among the people found to be using Vanuatu diplomatic passports are a Northern Irish 'contractor' working in Sierra Leone and a convicted member of a Chinese triad.
Second, the information on wikipedia.org is far from complete - and in some cases, inaccurate. And yes, as another poster has mentioned, The capital is Port Vila (one 'l'), so the summary is mis-spelled.
Third, Vanuatu has for quite a long time been associated with businesses who need a more flexible set of business rules than they might find in the US. Kazaa, for example, is incorporated in Vanuatu. As a gesture of appreciation, we now have the Kazaa Cricket field, which will be hosting international competition in the next couple of weeks.
There are some seriously large online betting operations interested in setting up shop in Vanuatu. Without telling tales out of school, I can confirm that one operation recently received approval to install one 7m and one 4m satellite dish, giving it total bandwidth capacity of about 40 Mbps. This in a country that currently has a national total about about 4 Mbps for voice and data combined!
Shades of Cryptonomicon, there actually is a 'bunker' here - a hardened server room with independant everything that is being used to manage data more or less along the same lines that Neal Stephenson suggested in his book.
Vanuatu has some of the most expensive Internet services in the world. I'm composing this message on a 56k dial-up line shared with 6 others computers. Unlimited dial-up costs a paltry USD 200/month, and dedicated access typically runs about USD 1000/month when bandwidth is factored in.
Vanuatu was once a site of significant money-laundering activity. Since 2001, the regulatory regime has been strengthened significantly. And yes, it was because the US 'pressurized' the government to act. They simply informed Vanuatu that if they didn't conform to certain minimum standards, they wouldn't be able to buy US dollars. Very persuasive.
Vanuatu is still a major tax haven, and is increasingly of interest to Australian investors. As I write, the private yacht of the richest man in Australia (Kerry Packer) is anchored in Port Vila Bay.
There are over 100 native languages in Vanuatu, but the language of commerce here is Bislama, a pidgin English that is really interesting to learn. Here is a quick and amusing sampler [moodindigo.ca].
As far as WinMX is concerned, I've heard nothing about their arrival in Vanuatu, but some people are fairly secretive about the business they do here, so maybe I shouldn't be skeptical....
Re:As a Vanuatu-based geek...THEN HELP US (Score:5, Insightful)
Then help us out and update the Wikipedia. That's what the whole thing is all about!
Parent
Centralized Servers (Score:4, Informative)
Even if the *AA's didnt exist, the risk of a single failure point should scream at you.
Usenet... (Score:3, Funny)
But *please*, don't tell anyone else...
If I remember correctly... (Score:3, Interesting)
At the time, BeOS popularity was waning, and as web sites supporting it started shutting down, the BeShare network quickly became -the- place to get freeware and shareware applications that no longer had download mirrors available, and were unsupported by the original developer.
If memory serves, there was quite a bit of porn on it, too, but not a lot of music -- applications, drivers, config files and BeOS demos were definitely the overwhelming offering.
Of course, once WinMX came out and Windows people started using the network, it became overwhelmed with music trades. Still, for once, you can safely claim that this particular P2P "network" was created not to trade in pirated goods (which was frowned upon in the BeShare days) but in fact as a technical proof-of-concept that was quickly leveraged as a legal software distribution tool, much like BitTorrent is trying to be.
I agree... (Score:2)
For starters, why not make a trackerless bittorrent-like network? Oh well, back to the land of unicorns and castles in the air.
Re:I agree... (Score:3, Insightful)
Trackerless torrents are already supported [bittorrent.com], even in the official client.
If you're asking for a eDonkey-like thing with BitTorrent as the underlying protocol instead of the FastTrack network, that already exist too in the form of eXeem [exeem.com].
However, from my experiences, it's about as good as eDonkey in efficiency. That's the problem with less centralized networks. Since it's so easy to
Re:There is NOTHING the RIAA or the USA can do (Score:2)
6) Get every other country we have economic ties to do the same
7) ???
8) RIAA profits!
Typo. (Score:2)
Should read: "....and ship them to the United States for persecution."
Re:There is NOTHING the RIAA or the USA can do (Score:5, Informative)
"If the cables just happened to "break" somewhere, would Vanuatu even have the resources to fix them?"
No, but it's okay. Vanuatu doesn't have undersea cables. Nor does it have the USD 20 million to have one laid. As I mentioned in a previous post, total national bandwidth - for both voice and data - is somewhere around 4Mbps, all through satellite.
Businesses who want to work online typically install their own satellite equipment. Typically, only the cash transactions occur in Vanuatu itself. That means that if you make a bet online, for example, you've placed your bet on a server somewhere in the US (or wherever), but your card actually gets debited through a transaction queued through a server sitting in a air-conditioned room in Vanuatu.
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Re:On my way now... (Score:3, Funny)
Were going streaking to Vanatu! Who will join me!?
...Good luck crossing most of the Pacific naked. Guess I'll take a ship.