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LimeWire to Block Copyrighted Work 295
An anonymous reader writes "Slyck is reporting that LimeWire is working on new code that will block non-licensed material. The new code checks to see if shared material is licensed, if it is not, the LimeWire client will politely inform the user, 'LimeWire can't determine if one or more files have been published under a suitable license. These files will not be shared.'" From the article: "Approximately 3 to 5 days ago, LimeWire developers began working on two new branches, cc_reverify_interval-branch and cc-publish-branch. The code in the first branch works to verify that every file shared has a license. If this is not the case, the file will not be shared. The second branch is for publishing one's own work without a license. According to the release notes, individuals can attach a Collective Commons license if the work is either their own or have permission to distribute the work ... According to a LimeWire beta tester who informed Slyck of this news, this feature is already complete. Developers are simply waiting for the signal to integrate these branches with the main branch, providing Mark Gorton, CEO of LimeWire, decides to go through with this."
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:In other news... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Informative)
Take a look at Shareaza [sourceforge.net] (and the just-released v2.2). Free, OSS, and supports Gnutella, Gnutella2, and eDonkey networks. Also supports the Bittorrent protocol.
It's actually quite a good product. I use it on those rare occasions where I get the sudden urge to do something evil.
Re:In other news... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:In other news... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:In other news... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:2)
Maybe not (Score:2)
Re:Maybe not (Score:4, Insightful)
"The RIAA is evil because the websites tell me so, so I'm going to ensure that System of a Down doesn't get paid today, which somehow is good for System of a Down!"
That's not the argument. The argument is that file sharing of copyrighted works improves sales of good products. My own anecdotal evidence would be that I'd never have found my favorite music group if I hadn't been sent an MP3 by a friend on the 'Net.
Re:Maybe not (Score:2)
Re:Maybe not (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Maybe not (Score:2)
Freedom and privacy dying at every turn (Score:4, Insightful)
Governments across the globe are getting more and more intrusive into everyone's private lives, and more and more cavalier about their violations of personal liberty and disregard for the dangers such violations create....with cheers of approval from people who "have nothing to hide."
It makes me very sad.
Re:Freedom and privacy dying at every turn (Score:5, Insightful)
Nope, it's not just you; the world is seriously fucked, at least from a civil liberties/privacy perspective.
The good news is that the pendulum will inevitably swing the other way; the bad news, of course, is that this won't be happening in our lifetime.
Re:Freedom and privacy dying at every turn (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Freedom and privacy dying at every turn (Score:2)
Every 40 years or so the liberal youth rebel against the old conservative order and the adults shun the chaos, and radical new legislation is passed to do new wonderful things. It happened in the 1880s, the 1920s, the 1960s, and we're about due again. T
Re:Freedom and privacy dying at every turn (Score:2, Interesting)
What freedoms exactly are you losing? The only reason this will effect you is if you were using Limewire to download illegal materials. But then Slashdot says that P2P is used for legal trading, so what's the problem?
This is nothing to do with the goverment, it's a private business doing something with their own software. Please put the tin-foil hats away.
Re:Freedom and privacy dying at every turn (Score:3, Interesting)
No. It will affect anyone who downloads perfectly legal material for which Limewire cannot find a valid license for. It now moves the state of legality in file-trading towards "guilty until proven innocent". If this becomes the norm, there will be a de facto requirement that all files come with some sort of license attached. In other words, it is a literal case of the "authorities" stating "Papers please
Re:In other news... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not so sure. The article says that the application will prevent *sharing* of files, but "sharing" is disabled by scanning files on the hard drive and marking some as illegitimate. But there's no mention of to-be-downloaded files, nor of other files on the Gnutella network. So it may *increase* usage in two ways:
1) Parents allow children to download music off of Limewire since that music now "must be legal".
2) The normal copyright infringers use Limewire to establish plausible deniability. Limewire filters illegal files and the files were downloaded from Limewire (albeit through the unfilitered Gnutella network or using files with publishing authorization that is forged), so the files must be legal and they can't be held accountable since they acted in good faith.
In reality, this is just opening Limewire up to even more liability.
Re:In other news... (Score:2)
hmm. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:hmm. (Score:5, Insightful)
is there anything that prevents you as sharing "HALF LIFE 2 REALLY WORKS PLAYS ONLINE.EXE" as your own work though?
You can also change file names, like make an W3Works.exe.doc, change all ownership info. Then compress the file to W3Works.exe.doc.rar with a text file of instructions in the rar! I think the whole idea of 'we-won't-let-you-share-copyright-work' is to get the RIAA off Limewire's back and let them blame the users for what happens afterwards.
Re:hmm. (Score:2)
http://web.archive.org/web/20010402083936/http://
Re:hmm. (Score:3, Funny)
keyword: unlicensed (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Other clients on the same network won't by default implement their solution
2. One can still download files from other clients (how else can you determine if the content is legal?) and other networks
Although this might be considered a victory for the other side, it seems that for any given victory there are 10 new file sharing programs out there.
Furthermore, straight from their website:
"If an individual shares an unlicensed MP3 file, the LimeWire client will display the following message and prevent its distribution:"
How will the process go to determine if a mp3 file has a license?
Maybe the only thing that this will achieve is destroy all filesharing of 'unlicensed' (READ: not the latest 'licensed'/paid/newest-format content) and destroy their client-base in the process too?
Re:keyword: unlicensed (Score:2)
Re:keyword: unlicensed (Score:2, Funny)
1) Read unknown filename and attributes
2) ????
3) Display error message
4) Profit
They are leaving it to the developers who spent 3 hours handwaving and making grand gestures whilst all the time crossing their toes and hoping they didn't get either fired or berated by the OSS community peers.
Re:keyword: unlicensed (Score:5, Insightful)
How will they differentiate between The Hunchback of Notre Dame and something that is not public domain and restrictive? How will they differentiate between a short story from a nobody author who is gladly sharing his work with the latest crappy Anne Rice eBook?
And further, why should anyone have to? You should have to go out of your way to say "THIS IS MY WORK - IT HAS THESE CERTAIN RESTRICTIONS ON IT" versus "THIS IS MY WORK - DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH IT". I know this isn't how it legally goes, but come on. And if you're not the original author, how do you make available such a license and choose it? The dude who wrote Cinderella isn't alive anymore, so the story of cinderella can't be shared, since there's not necessarily a license on any work from it I might use?
Is this where the future is headed? Everyone must license every single thing they ever play, write, direct, say - whatever? Every creative work MUST have a license or it will become unusable and unsharable? Shoudn't the onus be on the person who wants to leverage the restrictive licenses on their works to do so? Why should I have to go through the trouble of using some digital licensing scheme just to put out something for free that a billion dollar industry has to go through to make money? It seems the hard work should be theirs - not mine.
Oh - and how much is it going to cost to implement some sort of digital scannable license, I wonder?
Re:keyword: unlicensed (Score:5, Interesting)
Consider the impact this can have on the indie artists... and those artists who try to have their music publically available (quite a few do exist) - how are they supposed to get a license so that the music can be shared? What standard does LimeWire plan to use in order to implement the license use?
Re:keyword: unlicensed (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes. So fight the rearguard action here (http://www.eff.org/ [eff.org] and subvert the new order here (http://www.creativecommons.org./ [www.creativecommons.org]
Neither is going to take more time than typing that missive did.
Re:keyword: unlicensed (Score:2)
For what it's worth, this is line with modern Copyright law. Starting in 1886 (due the Berne Convention [wikipedia.org]), copyrights were automatic. It's not specific to P2P programs... if you post something on the web, or write it in a letter, you have to go out of your way to say "this is in the public domain" or "this is free for non-commercial use".
Granted, the internet
Subconscious copying (Score:2)
I don't know much about this, but how would someone go about making their music licensed, but still distributable?
For one thing, you'd have to hire a musicologist and get some composer liability insurance [musicproinsurance.com] against nuisance lawsuits alleging subconscious copying [slashdot.org].
How will they differentiate between The Hunchback of Notre Dame and something that is not public domain and restrictive?
Walt Disney Pictures' animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame is copyrighted. English translations of Victor Hugo's nov
Re:keyword: unlicensed (Score:2)
Wouldn't they just look it up on the internet database that lists the album info etc? (Sorry, I forget the acronymn.)
In any event, even if it is easily thrwartable, the plus side to this is that they would end up with ammo to use against the RIAA. Maybe I'm just too optimistic or ignorant, but I have difficulty imagining the RIAA being able to shut them down if they're actively working to block content they can verify. It potentially takes
Re:keyword: unlicensed (Score:2)
Re:keyword: unlicensed (Score:3, Interesting)
Per default you are not allowed to distribute any copyrighted work.
So what if I created the song myself? No wait, I still can't distribute it because I've presumably accidentally copied it from a song on the radio [slashdot.org].
not a bad idea (Score:5, Insightful)
This means LimeWire is not encouraging nor participating in violation of copyright.
Thus Limewire hopes to survive the lawsuits to come.
I agree... (Score:5, Interesting)
Only two outcomes (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:not a bad idea (Score:2)
This means LimeWire is not encouraging nor participating in violation of copyright.
Thus Limewire hopes to survive the lawsuits to come.
Ok, and (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ok, and (Score:5, Insightful)
So yeah, if limewire wants to commit suicide, let them be my guest...
and Open Source (Score:3, Insightful)
So people can go to other networks, or can go to other clients on the same network, or can just tweak the client. This seems a bit silly. The only thing I can see this doing is driving people from the official LimeWire client to unofficial ones, ensuring that the people w
Internet: Censorship=Damage (Score:5, Insightful)
Switch Networks (Score:4, Interesting)
yawn (Score:5, Informative)
Also here's [limewire.org] the source. Go build your own without this 'feature'.
It's about civil disobedience. (Score:5, Insightful)
B: There are noninfringing reasons to trade copyrighted works, and there are illegal but valid reasons to trade copyrighted works. For example, there was a movie recently that many, many people recommended that I see, but had been unavailable through traditional retail channels for many years. So I just downloaded it from a P2P network. I've discovered a lot of German Trance and other musical acts through P2P networks that I can't even buy over traditional retail channels, even importers. I've found many, many acts that I would not otherwise have been exposed to, from Argentine Tango ripped from Vinyl to obscure local acts. I've just got a Russian version of Hamlet that you would never find in Suncoast, and culturally significant games from the mid 80's that are completely unavailable even on Ebay. I've downloaded television shows from foreign countries as well as ones that my local cable monopoly simply decided weren't worth carrying.
I think the reason why P2P networks are so revered is that they're our only counterweight in the encroachment against our rights. The content industries control Television, Movies, Radio, most local concert venues, the Congress, and are getting protection schemes into television and playback hardware. They've been convicted of monopoly price fixing, yet didn't change a single practice. They lie about profits to avoid paying their artists. They've slipped stupid things into laws that make it illegal for people to describe Rot-13. They've ensured that copyright never expires, that nothing ever returns to the public domain. They own the culture that is imprinted in your brain.
What do we have as citizens? Civil disobedience via P2P. Want to find good new music? You could to go the Clear-Channel owned radio stations who use technically illegal payola from the major record labels to decide what gets played... or you can go on P2P networks, download a whole bunch of stuff, and see what you like. Want to listen to your music on-the-go? You could buy a CD, only to find that you can't convert it to MP3's to listen on your iPod, or you could just go online and download the fscking MP3's. Want to use a snipped from The Song of the South [songofthesouth.net] or from Der Fuhrer's Face [imdb.com] in a lecture on popular responses to cultural crisis? Since Disney is pretending that neither of these historical films exist, your only recourse is to go on P2P and get it yourself.
I'm saying this as a person in the content generation industry... I help make videogames for major publishers. And piracy of games I've worked on has happened on P2P networks. Yet I still feel that the open nature is an important counterbalance to traditional distribution networks which have become dominated by a few small, self-serving companies. Culture remaining in control of the people is far more important than a slight sales loss to a highly profitable convicted monopolist.
Most likely a liability issue more than anything (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Most likely a liability issue more than anythin (Score:2)
but what about..... (Score:2, Insightful)
What about projects like shareaza?
are hundreds of OS contributers going to get a suppoena too?
Re:but what about..... (Score:2, Insightful)
Future* headline: (Score:2)
* "Future" = two weeks after this is implemented
OT - Re:Future* headline: (Score:2)
In Soviet Russia:
3. Profit!
2. ???
1. Imagine a Beowulf cluster of sigs, you insensitive clod!
What, there weren't any new overlords you could welcome?
I have permission; who do I show the note to? (Score:2)
I guess LimeWire feels th
Re:I have permission; who do I show the note to? (Score:2)
LimeWire is a Gnutella client, right?...use another client!
Re:I have permission; who do I show the note to? (Score:2)
But frankly, I’m assuming this will be the death of the Gnutella network, as from what I’ve seen, 95%+ of the clients are some form of LimeWire. Sure, some will grab another client, but I think most will move to other networks, which will greatly reduce the utility of Gnutella. I really don’t know dick about the others, guess it’s time I learned.
Hopefully I’m wrong though.
Message (Score:4, Funny)
Collective commons? (Score:3, Insightful)
What's that, like the creative commons, but by the Borg?
(For the record, 2 seconds of search the article shows it was indeed supposed to be creative commons.)
Introducing LemonWire (Score:3, Interesting)
LimeWire is open source, it'll fork...
Every time they release a new version of LimeWire there is a "cracked" pro version within days. Why? Because you don't even need to "crack" it, it's open source, you can just d/l the source and remove the "features" you don't want.
There's a fundamental problem with this... (Score:5, Insightful)
The system cannot know if I have a license. Moreover, if I do put a work up for distribution, there's the problem that they have to take my word for it that I have not lied about the terms under which I am distributing it.
Also, typically licenses can also be dependent on the type of use. How are they to know how I am using something I downloaded? In many cases, it may not be immediately clear if distribution in this manner is permissible...
Sure, they are trying to cover their collective butts, but from what? There's no reason to believe that such a superficial system that doesn't mirror any material aspect of copyright law is going to be considered due diligence in policing themselves.
Re:There's a fundamental problem with this... (Score:3, Informative)
The last thing we need (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Question (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, but you would have a better chance of aruging down the damages. However in no case is the judge permitted to reduce the damages below $200 per infringment. The legal term is "innocent infringer". If you are absolutely 100% innocent, yet you still created infringing copies through no fault of your own, the minimum damage is $200 per infringment. You also bear the legal burden of
Wrong Title? (Score:2)
I guess it is a slow news day....
No big deal (Score:2)
It doesn't change what's available on the network. If download times go up because fewer newbies commit accidental copyright violation, so be it. Anyone who thinks that's a bad thing is no better than a malware author exploiting the average clueless user.
Ob. Family Guy (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Ob. Family Guy (Score:2)
"See that ship over there? They're rebroadcasting Major League Baseball with implied oral consent, not express written consent - or so the legend goes.".
Only the Open will survive (Score:3, Insightful)
On the other hand P2P as a distribution system for legit purpose is gaining massive momentum, just look at Red Swoosh, iFilm and IGN.com are using it and the download speed are impressive, without hogging you connection like BT will do.
Bottom line, this move is just a trick to try to survive a little longer from LimeWire, too bad it is going to backfire...
Collective Commons (Score:2)
Re:Collective Commons (Score:2)
Soon to appear in Limewire: (Score:5, Funny)
BetaVille - Giant in Tokyo
Deleture - Like to dislike you
False Medicine - Special J
The Cops - Every inhale you take
Filenames may vary.
Open Source (Score:2, Insightful)
Child Pornography (Score:5, Insightful)
If they spent the same amount of time preventing Child pornography instead of music that is under RIAA's domain... well, I'm sure you get my point. What I'd like to know is why is the country that I live in more concerned about someone downloading copyrighted music than child pornography?
I know people are arrested all of the time for it, but music makes more news, it's kind of sad I think.
Re:Child Pornography (Score:2)
Fork of Limewire.... (Score:2)
From
-------------
The LimeWire source code can be obtained from the LimeWire open source
development site at www.limewire.org. The source code can be easily
accessed at: http://gui.limewire.org/servlets/ProjectSource [limewire.org].
Thank you for your interest in LimeWire!
-LimeWire Team
-----------
The COPYING file in the same directory contains a copy of the GNU GPL v 2.
So, considering Limewi
people still use gnutella? (Score:3, Insightful)
There is so much music out there in single serving format (I still think they should have $1 CD downloads..Britney Spears..yea her CDs would be worth about a dollar). Although the DRM stuff is annoying, at least it shows that the music industry is trying to adapt to what consumers really want.
Gnutella protocols are really goind the way of the casual user who used their machine to browse the internet, use e-mail, download porn and play video games. They're more than happy to pay 99 cents (or however much it's gone up to now) to download DRMed music.
The true people who copy tons of illegal software and copyrighted music will move on to Bittorrent or continuing using usenet and irc fservs. They'll be the next target for the RIAA of course, but stuff keeps moving fast enough that nerds, audiophiles and the such will be a few steps ahead of them.
On to other ramblings...
Re:people still use gnutella? (Score:2)
Not Everything Has Or Needs A License (Score:2)
Hint: not everything needs a license.
What does this have to do with patents? [nt] (Score:2)
Re:What does this have to do with patents? [nt] (Score:2)
That sound you hear... (Score:2)
What exactly is the problem? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What exactly is the problem? (Score:2)
Um...I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say "wtf?" Show me that data you have to support your statement.
Re:What exactly is the problem? (Score:2)
From Dictionary.com:
joke, noun
gag, laugh, jest, jape
a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter
Say goodbye to Limewire... (Score:2)
These companies/products can try and try to force DRM onto people, but unless people elect to use it, they will fail.
I buy music on iTunes because it's legal/guilt-free, and affordable (and because I can afford to buy music these days).
The only people that pirate music are high-school kids that can't afford to buy music. The record labels are crying because they can no longer take advantage of these kids. Adults still purchase
This is the principle of CYA (Score:5, Funny)
RIAA: But look, we found these modified versions that bypass it!
LimeWire: Sorry, man, that's not our code. Go yell at them, not us.
Or if you prefer a more geekoid version:
LimeWire (waves hand): This is not the code you are looking for.
RIAA: This is not the code we are looking for.
LimeWire: Our code is clean
RIAA: Their code is clean.
LimeWire: Move along
RIAA: Move along
Re:This is the principle of CYA (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This is the principle of CYA (Score:3, Funny)
LimeWire (waves hand): This is not the code you are looking for.
RIAA: This is not the code we are looking for.
LimeWire: Our code is clean
RIAA: Their code is clean.
LimeWire: Strip each other naked in the town square and scream 'I'M MADONNA, I'M MADONNA!'
RIAA: Uh... We were kinda planning on doing that anyway...
Note: John Cheese & above animation are NSW; John Cheese may cause serious brain damage!
LimeWire to Block Copyrighted Work (Score:2)
So... (Score:2)
Lime what? (Score:2)
On the damage this will do to Creative Commons (Score:3, Insightful)
CC on all things shared, and
taint CC's license.
You will hear the cry
from the RIAA, "You
see? CC's for thieves!"
Whoa ! You don't understand what's going on here. (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, this will work because Gnutella is an open network, with many clients. A commercial leech client like the new Limewire will drain some ressources off the network, and in time, other clients may adapt to detect the newer Limewire versions, at which point Limewire will fight back...
But remember: Limewire may well be evil.
Can anyone clear this up? (Score:3, Interesting)
Hypothetical 2: A
Hypothetical 3: As the
Hypothetical 4: Joe Cracker rips a DVD, removes the CSS and Macrovision and decides to create a private members website that charges $10 a year to access on an all you can eat download basis. Other that removing the encryption no work is done the file and it is essentially the same as it was when it was sold on Amazon. Now thats got to copyright infringement, right?
This is a
I'd be interested to here what you think.
Re:Lets see if I remember how.... (Score:2)
You missed "Control Panel"
BTW, does anybody else notice the slight changes and freshening
Re:I wonder why... (Score:2)
Re:Lime Wire Exodus (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Bye Bye Limewire (Score:2, Interesting)
Nor will it stop anybody create a fork of Limewire with the copy protection stuff removed.