I had no idea people still used this, but Jared has written us a really cool guide on how to download from newsgroups. I remember downloading stuff from newsgroups back in 1994, crazy that this wholly centralized, easy to find service hasn’t had a single lawsuit over copyrighted content.
Wow so just finishing up what ended up being months of work on the new Zeropaid. We had to move everything from a hacked up custom CMS that was a combination of an old version of pligg, something I wrote in 2002 called ‘newsadmin,’ and 6 years of patch over hack over patch over grossness. The import contained over 500,000 users, 10,000 news stories, countless comments and posts. We decided on Wordpress for our CMS and vBulletin for our user management.
An aside on that for a moment. I really like vBulletin and we have used it for user management and our forum software for years now. When we decided on redoing ZP, we were really high on wordpress. We had been turning out tons of blogs with it, and its capacity for customization is undeniable. I really like some of the features of WP, like for example its ability to handle comments and filter spam is great. Performance-wise, Wordpress is not the greatest. Yes, we are using WP-SuperCache. It’s really hard to load test to the traffic levels of ZP, and once we flipped the switch I was shocked at the server loads. We are definitely adding more hardware to the rack to make this setup workable. Kinda wish I would have investigated more to see if we could have used vBulletin for the whole job… then again our vbulletin forum has to be filtered hourly for spam - manually.
At any rate, the new site is working amazingly well. Participation and discussion are way up, and that was the total goal. Everyone seems to like the new design, which is a first. Big hat tip to Unique Blog Designs, Nate, Matt and Josh. If you need a design done for a site, call these guys. Seriously.
Jorge is really the guy who made all this happen, grinding out the vbulletin bridge and all the little details that made the big picture look so good. Props to ya my man.
So to kickoff the new site and to reward the people who really matter - the users, we are giving away a brand new Xbox 360. To enter all you have to do is interact with the site, rate a program, leave a comment, post in the forum, or follow us on twitter. We pick the winner end of April, so you have plenty of time to get in where you fit in.
Last week digg had an article entitled “Warner Music chief has epiphany, praises Apple”, which linked to this story on AppleInsider which “borrowed” from this MacUser article. My oh my what have the apple fanboys brought us now?
In the article(s), Bronfman Jr. is quoted as saying:
“We used to fool ourselves,’ he said. “We used to think our content was perfect just exactly as it was. We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won.”
Wow, at first glance this seems like an intelligent, albeit late, and well articulated insight. But let’s get into context here. Who the hell is Edgar Bronfman Jr. and why does him saying something most intelligent people know already make news?
Well, he is currently head of Warner Music, owners of little labels like Atlantic and Bad Boy. Put it this way, someone waaaaaaaay down on the org chart from him cuts Puff Daddy’s checks. Where did he get all this paper? The old fashioned way of course, he inherited it. Loooong story shorter, he sold off the assets of his family’s company Seagrams (you drink it we distill it we used to bootleg it), including a 25% stake in chemical giant DuPont for $9 billion, so he could invest in his real love which is entertainment. He did this by buying stakes in various production houses like MCA and Universal Pictures, but pretty soon he realized he needed a partner. Enter Jean-Marie Messier and Vivendi, a multi billion dollar french conglomerate that was also moving out of their traditional businesses into new media and entertainment. In 2000, Edgar thought it would be a great idea to merge the two companies into one and form a internet-music-movie giant in a move that cost him all his remaining shares in Seagrams and his new media company. He resigned as chief in December of 2001, just before the value of the company plummeted more than 80%:
In 2004 he bought Warner Music Group for $2.6 Billion and here we are. Along the way he has always been very vocal about his opinions on Music and Technology. In 2000, he likened the use of Napster to slavery and communism which garnered a shockingly intelligent response from Courtney Love. After becoming head of Warner, he endorsed the RIAA’s lawsuits against consumers, going as far as to say that parents should be held accountable for their kids downloading habits. That was of course before he admitted his kids download unauthorized music too.
I had the pleasure of meeting both Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Jean-Marie Messier when they came to San Diego to buy MP3.com for $372 million in cash and stock. I distinctly remember having a bad taste in my mouth as he stood at the podium telling us all that we could “put the ugliness of my.mp3.com behind us” and “move forward in cooperation with the majors.”
Listen you jerk, you bought the solution you are looking for now in 2001, but were too (stupid? arrogant? ignorant? smart?) to realize it. Now you are giving advice to the mobile industry whose ringtone business has supported your sagging bottom line for the last 4 years on how to handle their consumers, and how you shouldn’t go to war with them. I know you didn’t go to college (neither did I really), but that one should be common sense. Trying to buddy up with the mobile industry now and seem hip to all your consumers who do what they want regardless of the whims of an entertainment tycoon will not work. How about you step up to the plate and do something real, like condemn the RIAA’s CONTINUING practice of suing your customers. Funny how you think its ok to make a lot of public statements on how pirating music is tantamount to evil, but you can mince words and beat around the bush when you are admitting you were wrong. Just say you were wrong, and then actually DO SOMETHING to correct the practice of “going to war with your customers.”
In the words of Michael Corleone, “I hope they will have the decency to clear my name with the same publicity with which they have now besmirched it.”
Popular TV streaming site TV Links has been shut down and the owner arrested. I won’t link to it here because someone has put up a typical domain parking page for the clueless traffic. Keep in mind this guy, who lives in the UK, wasn’t hosting any copyrighted content. He wasn’t stealing anything. He LINKED to streams that are publicly available on the internet. Hmm, who else links to copyrighted content? I would love to see them try and arrest Sergey and Larry for that shit.
As usual there are tons of TV Links replacement sites popping up, so nothing has been solved from a copyright protection standpoint, just the ruining of a young man’s life.
Ok so I have been cathing a lot of static over the leaked mediadefender emails since there is a thread where I was emailing them:
From: Ben Grodsky
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 2:06 PM
To: MIIVI
Cc: Randy Saaf
Subject: RE: miivi plansi think so. he then went on to dial my number and hung up immediately when i said “i [wouldn't] do an interview, but he should talk….” i have no idea where he got my number from.
From: Dylan Douglas
Sent: Mon 09-Jul-07 12:46
To: Ben Grodsky; MIIVI
Cc: Randy Saaf
Subject: RE: miivi plansIs he just randomly emailing miivi@mediadefender?
From: Ben Grodsky
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 12:27 PM
To: MIIVI
Cc: Randy Saaf
Subject: RE: miivi plansLET RANDY HANDLE THIS.
IGNORE E-MAIL.
From: Chris Hedgecock [mailto:chris@zeropaid.com]
Sent: Mon 09-Jul-07 12:24
To: Randy Saaf; MIIVI
Subject: miivi plansHey Randy,
We are doing a followup on the miivi situation and wanted to do a quick
call with you for a rebuttal if possible. My info is below.Thanks,
–
Chris Hedgecock
President, Zeropaid Inc.
skype.zpchris aim.kingt17
fax.858.270.9773 mobile.858.395.1444
chris@zeropaid.com
http://www.chrishedgecock.com/blog/
We were leaked the majority of these emails by an anonymous source (obviously now the guy who had access to the gmail account). We ran through them, and really found nothing to report. I was trying to provoke a response from the mediadefender, and since I had all their cell phone numbers from the emails I called Ben and Randy. I never hung up on him though, he made a pathetic attempt to say “Yeah I am busy with another issue can I call you back” and hung up on me.
Fast Company’s February issue has a great article on a quiet little company called Musictoday. Little may be kind of a misnomer because they help more than 700 artists connect with and monetize their fanbase. They provide end to end services for artists, including building their web presence, managing their fan club, and marketing their brand to their fans.
This is the kind of innovation the music industry needs, and we all knew it was just a matter of time before evolution reared its head. Suing your customers is not evolution, its regression and fear. In a time when all we read about is how the RIAA has sued another 800 file sharers and how record label after record label is losing money and going out of business, this story should be a shining beacon of hope that the industry is healthy. Because, after all, people want to buy their music. They WANT to support the artists they like.
Yes, another study proving what people (smart, respected industry folks at that) have been screaming at the music industry for years now:
A new study in the Journal of Political Economy by Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf has found that illegal music downloads have had no noticeable effects on the sale of music, contrary to the claims of the recording industry.
Entitled “The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis,” the study matched an extensive sample of music downloads to American music sales data in order to search for causality between illicit downloading and album sales. Analyzing data from the final four months of 2002, the researchers estimated that P2P affected no more than 0.7% of sales in that timeframe.
Yes, its true. Will this keep them from claiming under oath with a straight face that downloading a single song can cost them upwards of $10,000? No.
That is actually a generous noun, maybe it should be CNN+Reuters+NPD = RIAA propoganda. CNN.com published a Reuters story titled Illegal downloads grow despite lawsuits with the slug underneath reading “The music industry has started winning lawsuits in the last few years, but the number people downloading illegal music continues to slowly increase.”
Ahem. BULLSHIT! To quote Reuters on the exact nature of these lawsuits, “the music industry started winning lawsuits against individuals in the last few years.” Um, name one. Oh you mean the extortion letters that the RIAA’s thugs lawyers send to their customers demanding $3,000. Yes, people have settled but I have yet to hear of the RIAA actually fighting and winning ONE of these lawsuits.
No surprise here, Reuters is getting its data from NPD. I went on a tear of NPD’s suspect data back in June and CNET actually pulled a story because of it. I just wish these guys would do some homework or actually care. But no, its all about a catchy headline and some pageviews. They also quote “industry experts” like Wayne Rosso, former “CEO of Grokster”. Give me a break, that’s like saying “Hugh Hefner, publisher” Rosso is a scam artist, Grokster scammed both its users and the technologists it licensed from, and cheated them both in the end. Hey Wayne, how is that Mashboxx service coming? Any customers? Any funding? Any product??? Hellooooo?
*yawn* Seriously I am putting the laptop away now. Sorry for yelling.
We have a new promotion @ Zeropaid, we love to give stuff away. Our good friends @ Mvix are giving away a MV-5000U Media Player to a lucky Zeropaid reader. Just make a post in this thread and you are automatically entered to win. Please only enter if you have a US or Canadian mailing address, and the deadline is 11/25/06 at midnight.
Also, for stuff to put on the Mvix you can’t beat uTorrent, find yourself something to download from our BitTorrent Links Page.
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