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CounterPunch
September
2, 2002
Confessions
of a Downloader
by Lou Cohan
I recently spent over a month searching for, downloading
and burning forty different versions of Bob Dylan's "Knockin'
On Heaven's Door." This was my first but not last attempt
at downloading mp3 music files from the www. Like my subsequent
attempts, it was not a pleasurable experience.
These masochistic journeys into the netherworld
of mp3 downloading made we wonder why Hilary Rosen of the RIAA,
the record companies, and artists like Eminem are so worked up
about people downloading free songs and albums from the www.
Either they're pretty ignorant about what's really going on or
I am. And I don't think I am. Then again, maybe I'm not very
computer-savvy and I'm missing something.
Searching for songs always provided a
little excitement because, no matter which program I used, every
single time I hit the "Search" button I got different
results, sometimes within a couple of minutes using the same
program. Many files, like the versions of "Knockin' On Heaven's
Door" by the Alarm, Natalie Cole, the Red Hot Chili Peppers
and the London Philharmonic Orchestra I saw only once during
weeks of searching and never was able to download. Where'd they
go?
Worse, there are evidently three groups
of idiots, quite numerous, who post mp3 files on the www. The
first group can't spell. It was about a week into my project
when I realized that in order to find the files I was looking
for I needed to type in four different spellings of words in
the song's title- "Knocking," "Knockin',"
"Heavens" and "Heaven's." I got different
results for each spelling.
The second group of idiots has no idea
who is actually performing the song. I realized after about two
more weeks that Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh and the Cream
were all really Eric Clapton, and that Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd,
Aerosmith and Metallica were all really Guns N Roses.
In addition, a third group of idiots
posts files that are incomplete or that have a minute or more
of dead time at the end of the song which, unless one enjoys
listening to nothing (I don't), requires editing before burning.
You don't know any of this- files are
not by the artists claimed, are incomplete, or have dead time
tacked onto the end- until after you have successfully downloaded
the files to your hard drive and played them. On a scale of 1-10,
with 10 being This Is One Humongous Pain In The Ass And Waste
Of My Valuable Time, this rates a 20. But it gets worse.
Attempting to successfully download a
song leads to frustration, anger and, depending on how badly
you want a particular song, thoughts of suicide. It requires
as much patience as raising a teenager. Maybe college students
have the time required, but those of us who work full-time, have
families, and desire something of a normal or semi-normal life
away from a computer screen do not, for seldom was I able to
quickly download a song I found on the www. What usually happened
was I'd be placed "in line" behind four or more (usually
many more) other users around the world hoping to acquire that
song. With Kazaa, which does not provide you with many "hits"
and no complete albums that I could ever find, I might eventually
get the song after 2-4 days, but just as often never be able
to download it. WinMX provided a lot more "hits" but
proved more frustrating than Kazaa in getting the files. As I
was waiting for my "turn" or in the middle of downloading
a file people went offline, the Network went offline, or the
message "Timed Out (waiting for server response)" appeared.
Winmx did list some complete albums, mostly bootleg concerts,
but these always had over 50 users waiting their turn to download
the files. Morpheus was no better.
Why did I want to compile forty different
versions of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"? I honestly
have no idea. But what I do know is that if I had to buy the
cds containing each of those tracks, assuming I could even find
them all, I'd be out about $700-800 for what turned out to be
two cds. Maybe the guys in Metallica have that kind of money
but this public school teacher attempting to support a family
does not.
Did I break the law? Sure. Am I worried
about Hilary Rosen and the FBI breaking into my house, seizing
my computer, and arresting me? Only if this column gets published
and the FBI has no fear of people wondering why they're busting
a guy downloading a few mp3 files for his own personal pleasure
instead of looking for people attempting to turn our nation's
capital into a very large parking lot.
What did I learn from all this? I learned
that there can't be millions of people downloading songs and
albums successfully, posing some terrible threat to the enormous
profits of the record companies. I learned that the threat to
the industry is not from people with computers in their houses,
it's from people with greed in their hearts. If the folks who
run the record companies and the RIAA want to know who their
real enemy is all they have to do is look in a mirror.
As Bob Dylan said many years ago, long
before computers, mp3s, and the Internet, "It Ain't Me,
Babe."
Lou Cohan
can be reached at: wallychoice@attbi.com
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