I strolled into my local record store and found an ultra-rare album that music collectors cream over, Nirvana’s Love Buzz vinyl. Unfortunately, I just sold half a nut to buy orange juice and a fifth of cheap vodka. My pockets were empty. It’s not right to steal…right? Seriously who is it hurting? Million dollar record companies? Besides, with the economy in the shitter nobody has money to spare. And damnit I need my vodka. I looked around to see if anybody was watching. I then spotted the gnarly looking, long-haired, beer-bellied, Metallica monster who owns the place. I started to sweat, my breathing quickened and my hands trembled. This beast was a nasty opponent. I was quicker but he had reptilian strength on his side. I decided to go elsewhere. So I merrily left the record store and jumped onto the internet. File sharing on the internet doesn’t promise anybody bodily harm. So when exactly did this whole trend begin?
It happened in homes everywhere before the internet. Music fans pressed “dub” on their tape decks and boom-boxes to create sappy and nostalgic mix-tapes for their friends and hopeful lovers. Many summer romances would be captured on 400 feet of magnetic tape. An entire subculture of tape-mixers emerged in basements around the world. They were the pirate kings of their time. The process was so guiltless and pleasantly untraceable. Ah yes, such great times. All anybody had to do was wait for a song on the radio hit “record” and sit back and listen to their handy work. There was no RIAA breathing down their necks and no lawsuits it was all breathtakingly euphoric.
But after Al Gore invented the internet the shit hit the fans. The internet gave us chat rooms, Hamster Dance, an endless supply of amateur porn, and the best technology ever: the ability to share files from one computer to the next. All we needed was software to make it accessible to everybody. Thus Napster was born. Napster opened a huge door for anybody looking to score some good low quality tunes for free. It was a music lover’s paradise. Even those rare bootlegged albums made the search results as part of the 100,000+ song library Napster boasted. Amidst a play ground of pornography and child molesters there was finally some civility and it couldn’t have come at a better time. In a culture that was quickly becoming digital it was a waste of time to buy a CD. We all had more important things to do like watch Survivor. Again the times were wonderful we watched Survivor, talked about Bill Clinton and downloaded songs with anonymity from Napster. Big brother and those scum bags at the RIAA couldn’t do anything about it. Alas, the times would become dark and dangerous quickly.
Before I continue, let me explain exactly what the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is. The RIAA is a trade group who represents the recording industry of America and they take it upon themselves to protect intellectual properties. The RIAA is a bounty hunter, part good, mostly bad. The RIAA will stop at nothing. If they catch you sharing files they will sue your ass back to third world status or if they can’t manage to do that they will kill your children. At least that’s what they want us to think. Since 2003 the RIAA has been responsible for more than 17,000 lawsuits against the typical file sharer including file sharers under the age of 18. The RIAA also targets University students. Be careful! Every time you log onto Limewire, they can record your information.
Then in 2000 Metallica filed a lawsuit against Napster. The lawsuit inadvertently brought to the mainstream the file sharing craze that was, until that point, mostly known by tech savvy students. Metallica was super pissed about some music of theirs leaking onto the Napster servers before the release of their album. They didn’t have a problem with Napster until this incident threatened to hurt their profits. In reality, nobody wanted to buy their shitty new album anyway. Sorry Metallica, since the Black Album your music has taken a steady decline south. You know it. We know it. Other artists jumped on the Napster hate wagon claiming more wrong doings. Eventually Napster would be shut down and resurrected as some fucked pay to share bullshit. Whatever. That wasn’t before Napster spawned several clones; Bearshare, Limewire and half a dozen other services that would keep the sharing alive. But those services were also susceptible to the RIAA’s long sharp teeth.
Fortunately, there is a light at the end of this tunnel. Ladies and gentlemen let me introduce you to BIT Torrents. It’s the file-sharer’s end game. Bit Torrents are to file sharing as Blue Ray is to Dvd. Bit Torrents take a great idea and just makes it 100% better and more attractive. Of course, we are talking free here. Before, what made file sharing so easy to trace, we downloaded our music from one fellow file sharer at a time making it easy to track the file from one IP address to another. Now, Bit Torrents make it possible to download a single file from hundreds of different locations effectively making the download extremely efficient and fast and harder to trace. For example: I downloaded a certain artist’s entire discography, which weighed in at or about 10 gigabits, in less than 10 hours. Now I have more music than I can listen to. And I’m not only music folks. It’s possible to download television shows, movies, e-books, applications, games and pretty much anything that comes in a digital format. Bit Torrent took Napster’s idea and expanded it to an entire world of digital media.
Torrents are reasonably easy to find and download. Many programs streamline the whole process through software which provides a torrent search engine capable of tracking down millions of possible seeds from which to download. Personally I recommend downloading Utorrent, an application that keeps your downloads optimized and organized. After downloading Utorrent head to isohunt.com. Isohunt.com is a torrent search engine that connects torrent users together in a friendly, forum based environment that keeps downloaders aware of bogus files and untrustworthy seeds. Type in your wishes and wait for the search results. It truly is blissful as lists of DVDs and albums pop up on the screen just begging you to take them freely. Users leave comments on torrents regarding stability and file quality. So pick something that is friendly and download away. It is still possible to pick up viruses so remember to surf with protection folks, you don’t want to be spreading the digital herpes.
Since 2007 the RIAA has focused their lawyers on the companies providing the services to file sharers rather than the individuals themselves, good news for the common file sharer. But, internet service providers are paying closer attention to bandwidth usage. If you get caught downloading excessive amounts of data in a short amount of time your ISP will mail you a little notice informing you that they are watching. After the notice, if your activity continues they will hand you over to the RIAA. Policies differ between every ISP so check with your local services for more information.
Yes, this writer downloads. I download with respect. My CD and Vinyl collections rival my MP3 collection. I’ve done my part for the bands that I enjoy listening to. Besides, the record companies see most of the profit off of record sales. If you want to support your favorite band go to a concert and by merch. Enjoy the experience. If you’re curious, ITUNES is a good alternative for those who feel guilty about downloading illegally. With ITUNES’s new feature “Genius” it’s easier than ever to explore new artists and genres. Genius links songs and bands together that fall from the same musical tree.
As for that rare album at the record store, nothing can replace a tangible piece of history. The world is quickly becoming a completely digital place however and items like that are will become scarcer as time goes on. So enjoy those records and CDs for as long as you can. They will be a novelty in 50 years. Soon ITUNES will be hooking up to our brains pumping electrical signals directly into the temporal lobe. Until then however, happy torrent hunting!
