mp3 helped build "the network"

[Rick S.]

| mp3 was a good thing. A giant TCP/IP exists now, with what ? A hundred | million broadband connections, world wide ? | | This is is a good thing, and mp3 was "the killer application" that caused | a signficant portion of folks to get broadband. In the same way that | PowerMate, Lotus 1-2-3, and Wordperfect launched the PC revolution. | | Would it have happened as quickly without mp3 ? I certainly don't think | so.

Looking at it that way you could equally well argue that p*rn was the killer application.

Steinar Haug, Nethelp consulting, snipped-for-privacy@nethelp.no

Just as long as it was something unsavory or illegal! ____________________________________________________________________ TonyN.:' snipped-for-privacy@shore.net '

Porn is what drives the internet not Abba.

Actually Pornographic sites are the most successful and profitable internet businesses.

Dave

I'll drink to that Earl !

Dave ;-)

"David H. Lipman" wrote

But still, that's a different thing. That doesn't say that the majority of people that pay $39.95 (or whatever) a month to their ISP for broadband acess do so because they want to download lots of p*rn.

Not to say that I know that people that pay the $39.95 (or whatever) a month because that want to download lots of mp3 files.

And, in fact, it's probably a mixture of things, but the record industry is sure that their revenues are declining, and downloading a 3meg mp3 file is pretty painful at 56k... so it seems likely some people have shifted the money they were spending in the CD store to instead pay for broadband access. Unless people are listening to less music these days, the money went somewhere.

In fact, to confess up front, what I am saying is only partly true. Or at least one needs to emphasize the world "helped" in the phrase "mp3 helped build 'the network' ".

It certainly did that, it helped. How much it helped is debatable, and whether p*rn was more or less of a help is also open to debate, I'd say.

I disagree. because you are in your home and have your privacy -- yes, they do. So much so that Wall Street has seriously looked at this market as an investment possibility. As for speed, you talk about MPS's 5-20MB. In this sector are MPEGs, AVI and WMF files that

25~100MB and streaming video that requires broadband. MP3 files are just audio. Video has more content thus requiring higher bandwidths.

Dave

India? China? I spend much less money on RIAA stuff than I did in the late

80s, early 90s. No, I do not have an extensive collection of stolen RIAA mp3s, either. But, yes, I have spent that money elsewhere. I have a pretty sizeable collection of manga, CDs (purchased at 2x U.S. prices charged by RIAA member publishers; but worth every penny spent), and region 2 coded DVDs. As well a large number of, mostly, non-RIAA member publisher's region 1 coded DVDs. At least I don't think that ADV Films, AnimEigo, or VIZ Video are associated with the RIAA.

Mostly I don't like the new music peddled by the RIAA member publishers, so I spend my money elsewhere. They are too self-centered to see that a lot of their sales vanished because they don't offer what some of us would buy.

Bingo. Same crap peddled for way too much money. All while actively antagonizing the leading edge user base. Which, in turn, communicates to the masses about not supporting the RIAA. They've dug their own graves but just don't know they're dead yet.