By Lee Gomes, Forbes.com

Byline says Gomes, but I'm thinking this trend is old enough for Romero.

fta Back in the early days of the Internet, when 2400 baud dial-up modems roamed the earth, it would take more than an hour and a half to transmit that much information, assuming you could keep the connection going that long.

I need to learn how to be a smoother criminal.

FLAC is not new. At all.

Spin reduction:

Internet locales that are hosts to music piracy file sharing--which goes by the euphemism of "file sharing piracy"

Wow.

Cool article from 1996. I wonder when the new Pentium processors will be coming in? And I'm really looking forward to Windows Millennium. I bet it's a stable OS.

"Of Merlin wise I learned a song,--
Sing it low, or sing it loud,
It is mightier than the strong,
And punishes the proud.
I sing it to the surging crowd,--
Good men it will calm and cheer,
Bad men it will chain and cage.
In the heart of the music peals a strain
Which only angels hear;
Whether it waken joy or rage,
Hushed myriads hark in vain,
Yet they who hear it shed their age,
And take their youth again."

- 'Merlin's Song' by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1846)

Does "Welcome to the Jungle" really need to be heard in a Lossless format?

skinink: Does "Welcome to the Jungle" really need to be heard in a Lossless format?

No, but "November Rain" certianly does...

They have to stop letting media people write about computer stuff.

Really.

So, are there any Palm OS programs out there for listening to these lossless formats on my Palm TX?

"Back in the early days of the Internet, when 2400 baud dial-up modems roamed the earth, it would take more than an hour and a half to transmit that much information"

2400 baud... that's 300 bytes a second (2400 bits a second), right? So that's roughly 1 megabyte an hour. It would take 28 hours... Am I wrong?

/Hot like molasses on a cold day..

Look, I buy that at least a quarter of you can tell the difference between 192k and 128k. And maybe a few of you find an improvement with 256k. But lossless from an already-lossy CD? Really?

This would be more like an Obvious thing than a Spiffy thing. Almost Ric Romero obvious.
Subby: "*gasp* oh my god, there are other "formats" beside "mp3" for stealing music from CDs and internets to store on your computor."

FAIL

macadamiaman:
2400 baud... that's 300 bytes a second (2400 bits a second), right? So that's roughly 1 megabyte an hour. It would take 28 hours... Am I wrong?

I came here to say that. I remember the 2400bps days, and it was a 1 meg per hour at best. And when I say at best, I mean downloading at 2400bps usually involved a transfer protocol like Xmodem, which did not have error correction. Line noise, someone picking up the phone, etc. would nuke the download. It wasn't until speeds kicked up to around 9600 that Ymodem, Zmodem, and other protocols offered software based error correction. Then the mighty 14.4k modem came along, and the even mightier US Robotics modems boasting hardware based error correction and compression.

So yeah, it was 1mb per hour then, but games frequently didn't exceed 1 mb compressed either. Good ole Jones in the Fast Lane . . .

In an attempt to be on top, Farker stevegarbowski is now on the bottom. Even though you signed up a year ago, welcome to Fark.

wow, I'm quite surprised ABCNews even knew what a computer is. For them to cover this, even moreso.

Riffington: Look, I buy that at least a quarter of you can tell the difference between 192k and 128k. And maybe a few of you find an improvement with 256k. But lossless from an already-lossy CD? Really?

FLAC (or other lossless format) makes a great archival format: you can always reconstitute it in the original quality and re-encode it to whatever lossy algorithm (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, etc.) that you wish.

/has a bunch of old MP2s that he lost the originals for

ABC now a division of the FOX News Network.

I'm not even any kind of tech geek or audio expert and that article made me cringe.

where can i download the occasional song my daughter wants in mp3 format for free? the wife and i still buy cds but i aint buying jonas brothers or hannah montana for one song she likes cuz of disney channel.

yea i know.. i sound old. off lawn

texquire: macadamiaman:
2400 baud... that's 300 bytes a second (2400 bits a second), right? So that's roughly 1 megabyte an hour. It would take 28 hours... Am I wrong?

I came here to say that. I remember the 2400bps days, and it was a 1 meg per hour at best. And when I say at best, I mean downloading at 2400bps usually involved a transfer protocol like Xmodem, which did not have error correction. Line noise, someone picking up the phone, etc. would nuke the download. It wasn't until speeds kicked up to around 9600 that Ymodem, Zmodem, and other protocols offered software based error correction. Then the mighty 14.4k modem came along, and the even mightier US Robotics modems boasting hardware based error correction and compression.

So yeah, it was 1mb per hour then, but games frequently didn't exceed 1 mb compressed either. Good ole Jones in the Fast Lane . . .

But who actually connected to the internet via a 2400 baud modem? I'm sure some people did, but I would imagine that most people's first internet experience was on at least a 14.4 modem.

zfarkingman: where can i download the occasional song my daughter wants in mp3 format for free? the wife and i still buy cds but i aint buying jonas brothers or hannah montana for one song she likes cuz of disney channel.

yea i know.. i sound old. off lawn

Torrents, my friend, torrents.

Everyone Has Taken The Good Names: Spin reduction:

Internet locales that are hosts to music piracy file sharing--which goes by the euphemism of "file sharing piracy"

Uhhh, no, it was way right before. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE pirating music 'cause I ain't got no money, but let's not beat around the bush about what we're doing here.

That reminds me I have to go out and buy a new Victrola needle, the old one is getting dull and skipping.

But who actually connected to the internet via a 2400 baud modem?

I used a slow modem for terminal access -- tty session on the Unix box or terminal server, escape to the internet from there. I never ran IP over anything slower than 9600 except when the analog phone lines were having a bad day.

I have not, however, used a genuine "tty", that being a typewriter-style device rather than a CRT. Let me rephrase that. CRT is obsolete too. A typewriter-style device rather than a video display. Unix systems pretend everything is a typewriter, even when it's not, much the same way IBM mainframes pretend everything is a card punch or card reader.

-Anybody ever use any of those Russian sites where you buy the songs for like, a nickel a pop? What's the legality of that do you know? Any court rulings? BTW is the RIAA still suing people? Haven't heard about them in awhile...

is the RIAA still suing people?

They won two big verdicts, declared victory, and mostly abandoned the courtroom to pursue other opportunities.

Everyone Has Taken The Good Names: Spin reduction:

Internet locales that are hosts to music piracy file sharing--which goes by the euphemism of "file sharing piracy"

Puh-leese..

Why do you think 'Ripping' as CD is called 'Ripping'?

Antilope: That reminds me I have to go out and buy a new Victrola needle, the old one is getting dull and skipping.

That reminds me, I actually do have to buy some more needles...

LeroyB: In an attempt to be on top, Farker stevegarbowski is now on the bottom. Even though you signed up a year ago, welcome to Fark.

Leroy doesn't get it even after 7 years.

There is no reason to pirate music as long as you have Spotify. Too bad it's not accessible in the US(without using proxies).
If you pay for it you can even get it in 320kbs

" They won two big verdicts, declared victory, and mostly abandoned the courtroom to pursue other opportunities. "

Then they lost one of those two, and the other is being appealed. They still declared victory. The other opportunity they are pursuing is to end around the court system ( they are losing ground very quickly on some other crucial cases ) by pressuring ISP's to cut people off based on accusation, without any pesky interference by courts.

" Uhhh, no, it was way right before. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE pirating music 'cause I ain't got no money, but let's not beat around the bush about what we're doing here. "

Of course you've never used a VHS to tape a TV show, a Cassette recorder to copy a friends album, or any such thing like that I suppose. Just because the scale SEEMS larger, it's not. Besides two independent studies have proven sharing has no impact on sales.( oberhozler/Strumpf ). The spin reversal was appropriate.

I was at the Genius Bar getting my iPod replaced yesterday, and one of the "facts" that popped up on the screen above the bar was that AAC encoded files actually sound better than regular CDs.

FTFA: "MP3s are slowly going away, being gradually replaced by a more sophisticated way of stealing music."

MP3's are a way of stealing music? Maybe grandpa shouldn't be writing tech articles. I stopped reading there as it was obvious failauthor had nothing intelligent to say.

Dreddsnik: Then they lost one of those two, and the other is being appealed.

They won the case against Jammie Thomas, the judge ordered a new trial, and they won even bigger the second time around. Juries don't like defendants who blatantly lie.

They won the case against Joel Tenenbaum. After he admitted breaking the law the judge told the jury the only question was how much to award. The answer was "a lot," because once again the defendant showed that a large punitive award was deserved.

The only real legal question being raised at this point is the magnitude of the awards. Statutory damages are aimed at traditional commercial infringement, like publishing an unauthorized edition of a book. Judged in that context they are reasonable. So the EFF et al. want them judged as applied to the particular defendants.

mudesi: They have to stop letting media people write about computer stuff.

Really.

Corollary: They have to stop letting 70 year old technophobes legislate and adjudicate about computer stuff.

That's convenient, 28.1 million bytes equals 28.1 megabytes.

Everyone Has Taken The Good Names: Spin reduction:

Internet locales that are hosts to music piracy file sharing--which goes by the euphemism of "file sharing piracy"

Still illegal.

Xaneidolon: mudesi: They have to stop letting media people write about computer stuff.

Really.

Corollary: They have to stop letting 70 year old technophobes legislate and adjudicate about computer stuff.

Amusing anecdote:

I once accessed the internet on the library catalog terminal using the f1 key for help. Typed in Internet and that worked.

Well, a week later - I get a call from a detective, talked to him a bit by mentioning the f1 key.

A month later, I was in trial for a class one misdemeanor for 'Unauthorized misuse of Computer Access'.

That went well - Oh and I got permenantly banned from the library.

All because of that crotchety 60 year old librarian that preferred there to be no internet access in the library at all.

Technophobes.

Desmo: Everyone Has Taken The Good Names: Spin reduction:

Internet locales that are hosts to music piracy file sharing--which goes by the euphemism of "file sharing piracy"

Puh-leese..

Why do you think 'Ripping' as CD is called 'Ripping'?

Believe it or not, it's not because everyone wants to "Rip Off" music - it's because people want to "rip" the songs out of CDs.

TOAST™ doesn't actually brown and crisp CD-Rs...

That said - in geenral, these torrent sites are simply hubs to get info to get free music. Piracy, copyright infringement, whatever...it's still illegal.

Walt_Jizzney: Everyone Has Taken The Good Names: Spin reduction:

Internet locales that are hosts to music piracy file sharing--which goes by the euphemism of "file sharing piracy"

Still illegal.

you do know that at one time interracial marriage was illegal?

The fact it's illegal does not insinuate that it's a well reasoned law.

CrispFlows: Walt_Jizzney: Everyone Has Taken The Good Names: Spin reduction:

Internet locales that are hosts to music piracy file sharing--which goes by the euphemism of "file sharing piracy"

Still illegal.

you do know that at one time interracial marriage was illegal?

The fact it's illegal does not insinuate that it's a well reasoned law.

Fair enough. But it still doesn't make it legal.

CrispFlows: Walt_Jizzney: Everyone Has Taken The Good Names: Spin reduction:

Internet locales that are hosts to music piracy file sharing--which goes by the euphemism of "file sharing piracy"

Still illegal.

you do know that at one time interracial marriage was illegal?

The fact it's illegal does not insinuate that it's a well reasoned law.

Wow, did you just compare trying to stop people from stealing intellectual property to trying to stop two consenting adults in love from getting married?

You suck.

Walt_Jizzney: CrispFlows: Walt_Jizzney: Everyone Has Taken The Good Names: Spin reduction:

Internet locales that are hosts to music piracy file sharing--which goes by the euphemism of "file sharing piracy"

Still illegal.

you do know that at one time interracial marriage was illegal?

The fact it's illegal does not insinuate that it's a well reasoned law.

Fair enough. But it still doesn't make it legal.

The legality of an issue is whether or not you get caught. Just ask any parent, teacher, cop, politician.. etc..

Meh. I'll stick with MP3s. They'll play on anything & I can't hear any difference between a 320 kbps MP3 (which is the bitrate I encode all of my music) and the original source. (Using Edirol USB interface, Yamaha preamp, QSC power amp, Polk speakers, Dayton Titanic sub.)

Walt_Jizzney: Everyone Has Taken The Good Names: Spin reduction:

Internet locales that are hosts to music piracy file sharing--which goes by the euphemism of "file sharing piracy"

Still illegal.

I wonder if Everyone Has Taken The Good Names has told his boss yet that he doesn't believe in people being paid for their work.

macadamiaman: "Back in the early days of the Internet, when 2400 baud dial-up modems roamed the earth, it would take more than an hour and a half to transmit that much information"

2400 baud... that's 300 bytes a second (2400 bits a second), right? So that's roughly 1 megabyte an hour. It would take 28 hours... Am I wrong?

Yes, you're right. This is what I came here to say. I believe the author intended to say 28.8K modems, then his math would be right.

dlewis6:
Wow, did you just compare trying to stop people from stealing intellectual property to trying to stop two consenting adults in love from getting married?

You suck.

Oh, I'm sorry, you want an exact parallel example of a poorly thought out law?

Okay - You tell me the logic of the following two problems... Why is happy birthday, a song written in 1893 an copy-written work?1

How is it that the players of the Beatles couldn't own their own songs until 2008?

How is it that the majority of the earnings of the songs are not put into the artist's pocket but into the labels?

Source:
1 http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.asp
2 http://131.193.153.231/www/issues/issue10_1/kretschmer/

Look under chart heading:
Income from compositions as percentage of total income