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Napster.com banned at some universities for clogging networks (2000)

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Re: Napster.com banned at some universities for clogging networks (2000)

#31

Post by marcodiego »

peterburkimsher wrote: post #14
umvi wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Limewire. I remember using Limewire to pirate Limewire Pro

On Windows, Audiogalaxy. And on Mac, Poisoned! With support for FastTrack (Kazaa), Gnutella (Limewire), OpenFT, OpenNap, and eMule. But dial-up was too slow, so it was usually quicker to repair a friend's iPod and make a backup using iPodRip or Senuti.

I think audiogalaxy was the real pioneer in p2p. Audiogalaxy satellite, IIRC, ran an ftp server on your machine while at the same time indexed your files and sent the list to audiogalaxy, the web service. From there, anyone could search for mp3 and download from users currently on-line. It was the begining.

It soon became very clear the problems of centralization for this purpose, decentralized networks thrived. Most proprietary implementation eventually died. The open ones, emule and gnutella2, although a small shadow of what they were, are still alive.

In the meantime bittorrent evolved and the industry had to bow to streaming services.

But, if anyone still wants to "fell the napster taste", the closest I know today is soulseek. There's a good client, called nicotine+, that works very well last time I tried.

Re: Napster.com banned at some universities for clogging networks (2000)

#32

Post by grensley »

ianlevesque wrote: post #13
torben-friis wrote: post #7

There was something about piracy in the times of Napster, emule and the like. It really made you feel like you knew some incantation to get access to the whole world's information. In practical terms, I have access to far more content now (music on Spotify, shows and movies on streaming services, tutorials, online classes, etc) and yet our reach doesn't seem as wide as it seemed in those times. Perhaps it was just th…

Arguably without Napster the major music labels would never have accommodated the iTunes Store and then Spotify. We’d still be slinging physical media around as the only non-radio option. If you didn’t live through that time I think it’s hard to appreciate how necessary the disruption was for moving the industry forward.

"If it ever gets too bad, they'll just steal again" should hang on the wall of every media distribution company.

Consolidation efforts like Netflix prevented piracy, but the splintering of streaming services has encouraged it, and sports (and especially football) has become the great fulcrum. Pirating sports is huge right now, because their distribution is an anti-consumer mess. Cable is using them to cling for dear life, streaming services own fragments, and some teams even have their own dedicated networks.

Eventually I think it will break, and somebody is going to have to take a haircut. Likely cable, with a slight shot to the sports leagues who have benefitted from cables desperation and entrenched customers. Consumers may finally getting a reasonable-ish price (maybe $20 a month instead of $65).

I believe Disney is in the best place to execute this: owning ESPN, ABC, Disney+, and enough of Hulu. They've made the largest investment into the NFL of any company, but rights are all scattered between Amazon, CBS, Fox, and NBC until 2033! I could see them acquiring either the rest of Fox and/or CBS (who hold down Sunday slots), maybe work out a deal for RedZone with the NFL, and pull in noon and afternoon audiences, which might be the tipping point that gets consumers on board.

Re: Napster.com banned at some universities for clogging networks (2000)

#33

Post by twodave »

firstplacelast wrote: post #22
codegeek wrote: post #3

Yes piracy is bad and all but as a college student, Napster was such as life saver. You could literally download any song you wanted to listen to. I also remember another application called Kazaa that was popular as well (circa 2000-2002ish)

The guy that made Kazaa went on to co-found Skype.

Also this same guy managed to acquire the rights for Subspace from VIE. It was rebranded as Continuum. I started playing Subspace as a teenager on v1.34 and continued to enjoy it through college thanks in large part to Priit’s efforts. I still log in every year or so and many of the same folks still play. It wasn’t just saving a game, but a community.

Re: Napster.com banned at some universities for clogging networks (2000)

#34

Post by interestica »

McMaster University, 2001. Ontario, Canada. The school took a novel approach to combat this. "Rez-x" was a file sharing system that was limited to the school's subnet. It didn't prevent you from using Napster, but by providing p2p access on the local (fast!) network, people just used it instead. So, rather than blocking the main pipe, they just gave a way more appealing local option (in a time where dialup was still somewhat common).

Re: Napster.com banned at some universities for clogging networks (2000)

#35

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

peterburkimsher wrote: post #14
umvi wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Limewire. I remember using Limewire to pirate Limewire Pro

On Windows, Audiogalaxy. And on Mac, Poisoned! With support for FastTrack (Kazaa), Gnutella (Limewire), OpenFT, OpenNap, and eMule. But dial-up was too slow, so it was usually quicker to repair a friend's iPod and make a backup using iPodRip or Senuti.

Last I checked Soulseek was still operating.

Not just that, but I've gotten back into IRC recently and there are still channels out there where you can still get individual tracks with CTCP.

Re: Napster.com banned at some universities for clogging networks (2000)

#36

Post by peterburkimsher »

iJohnDoe wrote: post #9
jonstewart wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, Hotline… 1998…

Fond memories of Hotline too. Is there a replacement or equivalent for Hotline today?

I'd forgotten Hotline (I was only 8 years old in 1998 and never used it) but the logo looked familiar.

GLoarbLine PhareRouge seems to run on Mac OS 10.13.6, but I don't know any IP addresses to connect to.

https://hotline.fandom.com/wiki/Clients

The closest spiritual successor, I suppose, would be SoulSeek.

Re: Napster.com banned at some universities for clogging networks (2000)

#38

Post by silisili »

torben-friis wrote: post #7

There was something about piracy in the times of Napster, emule and the like. It really made you feel like you knew some incantation to get access to the whole world's information. In practical terms, I have access to far more content now (music on Spotify, shows and movies on streaming services, tutorials, online classes, etc) and yet our reach doesn't seem as wide as it seemed in those times. Perhaps it was just th…

I agree. Thinking about it, probably to do with discovery. In those days, the idea of just mindlessly flipping through content didn't really exist, except on TV or radio. So we had to ask for recs, google for top charts and new albums, etc to know what to find, specifically.

Today it's too easy. Why research, Spotify/Netflix and the like will dump more in your face than you could handle in a lifetime.

Added to that, there's not much concept of 'building a collection' anymore. It used to be a personal point of pride. I have 3000 songs! Today the model is to just stream everything on the fly.

Re: Napster.com banned at some universities for clogging networks (2000)

#39

Post by analog31 »

ianlevesque wrote: post #13
torben-friis wrote: post #7

There was something about piracy in the times of Napster, emule and the like. It really made you feel like you knew some incantation to get access to the whole world's information. In practical terms, I have access to far more content now (music on Spotify, shows and movies on streaming services, tutorials, online classes, etc) and yet our reach doesn't seem as wide as it seemed in those times. Perhaps it was just th…

Arguably without Napster the major music labels would never have accommodated the iTunes Store and then Spotify. We’d still be slinging physical media around as the only non-radio option. If you didn’t live through that time I think it’s hard to appreciate how necessary the disruption was for moving the industry forward.

Granted what I'm talking about is far below the level of the major music labels, but I still buy music on CD. Then I rip it to my network drive when I get home. The reason is that my family is into music that's way off the mainstream, and we've asked the musicians directly: "Which way of buying your music nets you the most actual money?" The answer is still buying their CD.

I'm a musician myself but have no interest in recording or selling music.

Re: Napster.com banned at some universities for clogging networks (2000)

#40

Post by indigodaddy »

marcodiego wrote: post #31
peterburkimsher wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On Windows, Audiogalaxy. And on Mac, Poisoned! With support for FastTrack (Kazaa), Gnutella (Limewire), OpenFT, OpenNap, and eMule. But dial-up was too slow, so it was usually quicker to repair a friend's iPod and make a backup using iPodRip or Senuti.

I think audiogalaxy was the real pioneer in p2p. Audiogalaxy satellite, IIRC, ran an ftp server on your machine while at the same time indexed your files and sent the list to audiogalaxy, the web service. From there, anyone could search for mp3 and download from users currently on-line. It was the begining. It soon became very clear the problems of centralization for this purpose, decentralized networks thrived. Most…

I remember Audiogalaxy, but cannot remember if it was before, after or basically concurrent with Napster..? Guess couldn’t have been before because Napster was the first right?
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