Downloading the Soul

The entertainment industry has fallen on hard times. File sharing is a big problem. They've made several attempts to influence file sharing, but so far all of their efforts have been futile. The following are just a few failed attempts to control digital media.

Futile Attempt #. 1
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Lock the media directly:











A team of security experts designed a complex and sophisticated algorithm that was embedded into the CD. The security feature supposedly prevented sharing the media.

It took an entire room, full of security experts, to create this technology. No telling how man hours it required. And they're certainly making more than I am.

But did the effort prevail? Not unless by "prevail" you mean complete failure.

Solution?That's right. A simple marker. As it turns out,

all the protection was encoded on the
very end of the disk. A simple smudge
with a marker and you're all set

Futile Attempt #. 2
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Beating a Dead Horse:








Napster! What the hell is up with Napster? The service just doesn't work the way you want. All the songs you actually want to hear are buy only. That wouldn't be so bad if you weren't already paying them a monthly subscription.


Futile Attempt #. 3
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Every cloud occasionally rains shit:

It's not only the music business either. The gaming world is really taking things serious. Only thing is their solution end up pissing off the people who actually buy the games. Take this friendly guy here, for example.



That's the short version. Here is the long version.



To sum this up. The security feature managed only to frustrate the buyers. And the whole thing was easily bypassed with a crack, something it is supposed to prevent. So a crack actually fixed his problem.

Futile Attempt #. 4
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Buy the Internet:









Big chain conglomerate corporations, such as Comcast, have tried limiting upload speeds for torrent files. Their next step is limiting downloads. This is causing quite an uproar too. Mainly because Bit-torrent is a legal service. But this is only a taste of what will happen if companies like Comcast owned the internet.

Torrent files aren't the only target. Some people are blacklisted. If you're blacklisted by an ISP, your internet access can be slowed significantly, even terminated. But here is the problem. Hackers can take control of any unprotected computers they want. They can take control of your computer and use it to do their dirty work. You could be blacklisted and not even know.

It's quite possible the criminal wont even be caught. Instead all the evidence leads back to you! A lot of lawsuits have been dropped due to the possibility of a Wifi hijack. You would be amazed how many unprotected computers there are floating around. Skilled hackers could have networks of computers working them.

Right now most these hackers are just working for the thrill. Now think about this. What would happen if the internet was in jeopardy? The cyber-world is their turf. It's their world. Comcast, or any other company that wants to control the internet should listen up. Do you honestly think you'll get away with it? Do you think all the hackers around the world will go peacefully into the night?

If the internet really was in trouble there is no doubt in my mind hackers of the world would unite. And this time their energies would be dead-set on the gatekeepers themselves.