General Chat / eDonkey gets shut down.

"According to court documents filed today MetaMachine, the company behind eDonkey, has agreed to pay a $30 million dollar settlement to the RIAA and cease distribution of its eDonkey, eDonkey 2000, Overnet and other software versions."

I guess it is for legal reasons. I know someone which has downloaded scary movie 4 without any cost... Though they trow some shit to say that everyone pratice illegal sellings with those researching tools...

The RIAA is so clueless it's hard to imagine that human beings are capable of being so stupid.

Their real losses from illegal downloading is about 1/100th of what they think it is because most people who download weren't going to buy it at any price anyways. If they couldn't download it they just wouldn't have it.

Conversely, there's a small percentage of people who downoaded something and ended up buying that CD or other CDs from the same artist. Or going to a concert. Or buying a T-shirt. All which benefit the artist indirectly but wouldn't have happened without the initial illegal download.

But, whatever. Everyone will just move to another site, nothing else will change, and the world will continue turning.

I recently downloaded Cobra Starship's cd, which came out today. We went to go see them Friday night in San Diego and after the show went up to Gabe (lead singer, also of Midtown) and offered him $10 telling him we downloaded the cd but support them and wanted them to have the money directly. He declined, but said to buy a shirt instead (which we already did, and showed him).

He even said he's pro-downloading, especially when people like us come to shows and buy direct.

Anywho, that's my story.

What you don't know is that guy called the RIAA that night. Expect their superagents on your doorstep within 48 hours, arrest warrant in hand.

Your game is up, Brent.

Labels by far get hit the heaviest in this deal. Sales drop at least by 25%, but most of the money there goes to the label, not the artist, as they make their money through performances.

That's why you get so many labels fighting as hard as possible, but still hear of lots of pro-file-sharing artists.

It's a little fucked that you get a few business heads controlling what happens to the actual creative product of a huge number of other people.

Whatever, I use eMule with KAD, so what's the problem. eMule is great for rare stuff that you won't find on Bittorrent or LimeWire. Downloading movies and music is legal here anyway (uploading isn't though). As concerning music give me a good reason to download 'legally'. I only listen music on my PSP which doesn't support that DRM crap. As for movies I actually buy a lot of them, but I sometimes like to download it first. But hell, 7 euros is not bad and the Matrix Trilogy for 15 euros isn't a bad deal either, but I still like to know what I buy.
This goes most with games. It's a lot better than demos. Most games I downloaded and enjoyed now have the original placed on my shelf. I saved myself a lot of money this way because it would be wasted money. Besides with my budget I like to wait until the price drops to a more reasonable price for me.