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I no longer share due to the threat from the RIAA. I'm a college student, and that's who their targeting. They sent a subpoena to one guy that was only sharing 8 mp3 files! The RIAA thinks that they're going to gain back all of their lost business by suing all of their customers. If they were half-way intellegent, they would try lowering the cost of a new CD from almost $20 to around $10. I know tons of other students that wouldn't download and would buy the CD if they could afford it, but CDs are one of the only technologies that have remained the same price since they first came out years and years ago. The artist make their money mainly off touring, and only a bit off of CDs, so sharing isn't hurting the artists as much as they want to make you think. It's hurting the record companies and that's why the RIAA is suing everyone. The stupidest thing is that they're suing for violating the copyright laws, but the copyright laws specifically implies that to be violating it, you have to be using the music for profit. Since most users are using it for personal use only, and are not gaining profit from sharing, then all it takes is a very good lawyer, and a judge willing to reconize that there's no profit gained, for the case to be thrown out in court. If enough cases get thrown out in court, with the RIAA losing money every time, they're decide to knock it off.
When I did share, I shared on WinMX. The RIAA BS has make me stop sharing all MP3s. I was going to continue share my vids (Simpsons esposodes, SciFi eposodes, and a few music videos, nothing really I can find in stores), but then I realized that RIAA is only starting with MP3s. If their cases don't get thrown out in court, then they're go after all of the vids too. The RIAA represents the whole recording industry, so television eposodes, movies, and other video files are next on their hit-list after MP3s.
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"People say I'm strange, does that make me a stranger?"
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