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rfmcdonaldSince the end of December 2001, I've been a member of Audiogalaxy (www.audiogalaxy.com). For those of you who don't know what Audiogalaxy is, it is a free file-sharing service that specializes in the transfer of music mp3s from one user to another. As of 10:29 today, I've downloaded 3,737.24 megabytes worth of mp3s--more than 700 songs.
I've read, recently, on Yahoo! News, that the recording industry association of the US is suing Audiogalaxy. Given the poor performance inevitably put on by Napster, I anticipate that Audiogalaxy will follow that company to the dustbin.
Now. For the time being, I'll be downloading the remainder of Hawksley Workman's works, along with such other things as I can find in the weeks and months before Audiogalaxy either closed down or becomes a paying service (unlikely, given how Napster failed to make that transition and payments-for-music don't work either.)
I won't say, after Proudhon, that record-company property is theft. Granted that the record companies do exploit all their artists (and I eagerly await Britney Spears' tell-all autobiography in a decade), I won't argue that their copyright is invalid since you can't argue with that. All I'll say is that the vast majority of the mp3s I've downloaded are of songs that I couldn't get from the record companies because they don't offer them. Whether B-sides from singles long out of production (Garbage, Eurythmics), albums that have fallen out of production (Eurythmics' 1984), never been adequately promoted and purchasable locally (Marcella Detroit's later works), or never been released (Shakespears' Sister's third album), or obscure remixes, I couldn't get them from the record companies.
Seeing as how they don't do anything with their property, I wonder what loss they're actually suffering from their failure to promote their property.
I've read, recently, on Yahoo! News, that the recording industry association of the US is suing Audiogalaxy. Given the poor performance inevitably put on by Napster, I anticipate that Audiogalaxy will follow that company to the dustbin.
Now. For the time being, I'll be downloading the remainder of Hawksley Workman's works, along with such other things as I can find in the weeks and months before Audiogalaxy either closed down or becomes a paying service (unlikely, given how Napster failed to make that transition and payments-for-music don't work either.)
I won't say, after Proudhon, that record-company property is theft. Granted that the record companies do exploit all their artists (and I eagerly await Britney Spears' tell-all autobiography in a decade), I won't argue that their copyright is invalid since you can't argue with that. All I'll say is that the vast majority of the mp3s I've downloaded are of songs that I couldn't get from the record companies because they don't offer them. Whether B-sides from singles long out of production (Garbage, Eurythmics), albums that have fallen out of production (Eurythmics' 1984), never been adequately promoted and purchasable locally (Marcella Detroit's later works), or never been released (Shakespears' Sister's third album), or obscure remixes, I couldn't get them from the record companies.
Seeing as how they don't do anything with their property, I wonder what loss they're actually suffering from their failure to promote their property.
