RIAA: "ISPs Should Pay For Music Swapping..." - 19th January 2003
The RIAA (man, they never stop do they?) now reckon that the ISPs should be charged for allowing users to access file-sharing programs - hence the charge being passed on to the most active file-sharing users on their network. Check out the full story at the link:

Fake files on the Internet - and why they are there... - 17th January 2003
Did you ever download an MP3 from KaZaA and realise that it had nothing on it but complete silence? News is coming to surface that you may have been fooled by a man named Matt Warne. He claims that he helped to "poison P2P networks for the RIAA". Someone get my gun...

Find more about the story at the link (Source: Zeropaid).

Roxio Acquires the Assets of Napster - 17th January 2003
Ok, this news is pretty old, but it had to be mentioned on this site. Source - Cnet.com:

_________

"Roxio, a company best known for creating CD-burning technology, said Wednesday that it had completed its purchase of assets from bankrupt file-swapping company Napster.

Napster's technology and brand name have been on the auction block for months, after the company declared bankruptcy in June.

German media giant Bertelsmann had initially agreed to purchase the company for $9 million, but the agreement fell apart after a bankruptcy court blocked the purchase.

Roxio offers a music subscription service through Pressplay, a service owned by several major music labels. The company has made recent moves toward creating its own independent service, striking a music licensing deal with record label EMI. It's not yet clear how Roxio plans to use Napster's technology, however.

"The company will be announcing its plan for the development of Napster in the coming months," Roxio said in a statement Wednesday.

Roxio agreed to pay $5 million for Napster's patent portfolio and other intellectual property several weeks ago. Yet Roxio isn't taking on Napster's legal liabilities, including any that stem from the record companies' pending copyright lawsuit against the former file-swapping giant.

Record companies have only recently begun to give technology companies licenses to let subscribers burn their own CDs from downloaded music. This new development could help give Roxio a more solid foothold in the music distribution business, as it creates one of the most widely distributed CD software packages.

Napster's peer-to-peer software, for example, could help form a distribution mechanism for the company's own service."
_________

So it looks like Roxio isn't going to be using Napster's assets for the public to take advantage of again - it seems to be solely a business matter. Well........it's been an interesting time for sure. You can also see the press release from Roxio at the link below (thanks to Cory Christison).

[ LINK ]

Blubster 2.0 is Here..........sort of - 29th June 2002
Back from my biology fieldtrip when I heard the news that Blubster 2.0 had been released - albeit a beta version of it. *Sigh*. Here's what Pablo (the developer of Blubster) posted the Blubster.net site:

Amazing how everything moves. I think you guys can't go with Blubster 1.2.3 knowing that Blubster 2.0 is there, and I don't blame you. I just cant release the official version, for several reasons.

In place, here is a link to: Blubster 2.0 Unofficial Release.

It has disabled features, the new non-UDP connection is disabled, and it is not bug free, but I felt forced to release it. Please, use it at your own risk.

Now, Pablo did say that Blubster 2.0 WAS finished some weeks ago, and I can't really see why he had to release this version (which is quite buggy, but very useable). But me, being so fantastically great and all, have found out the "several reasons" why the official Blubster 2.0 wasn't released (straight from the man's mouth himself). He said:

1. I have too much work answering peoples questions about Blubster 2.0 (heh)

2. We are waiting for out new partner...something that you will adore :) - that's still a secret.

3. We are working the serverside...we multiplied traffic because of AG (Audio Galaxy) and that is a lot of work to absorb all those people.

4. Sorting out the bugs that are still fucking with the 2.0 download manager.
   

Now, the second comment was quite interesting. Everyone assumed that he's talking about spyware or something, but he insists it most definitely isn't spyware. He was quite cryptic about it but gave us an idea - its something to do with security and may involve Norton's or another big name. Don't quote me on that btw, like I said, he was pretty cryptic.

Anyways, check out the "unofficial" beta version of Blubster 2.0 now. There are quite a few bugs that I have come across but its very useable. And very, very good....

[ DOWNLOAD ]

Quick Note - 22nd June 2002
I've got a Biology fieldtrip this week (*sigh*, it had to be the week that Blubster 2.0 is supposed to be released...) and  so no updates until Friday.

Audio Galaxy has flaunded... - 18th June 2002
After what has been around 3 years of Audio Galaxy being a prominent application that has acted as arguably the most popular napster alternative on the internet, the RIAA has caught up with them and taken them down.

All files that were available on the Audio Galaxy network are now blocked after the RIAA reached an out-of-court settlement over the copyright infringing that they were causing. Audio Galaxy, in order to stay alive, must now abide by the rules that the RIAA has set them and only allow files which... "requires that for any music available, the songwriter, music publisher, and/or recording company must first consent to the use and sharing of the work" - which basically means that you will no longer be able to get any of the files you want which you had access to before. It's a hella sad day for the file-sharing community, but Audio Galaxy's network structure (which is centralised like Napster's) meant that they were highly susceptible to being sued by any record labels for copy-right infringement, so I guess it was coming. Catch more info on this subject by reading RIAA's official press release, or at the link.

[ LINK ]

Blubster News and More - 17th June 2002
The news I've been waiting for for ages - Blubster 2.0 is finished. But, but.........hold your horses.......the developer (Pablo) hasn't put it on the net yet for financial reasons - but we should be seeing a release of it at around the date of the 26th of this month. Here are the list of new features which Pablo has mentioned we'll see:

- navigation buttons on home and help
- 30 (yes, 30) times faster song scanner
- complettely rewritten internal player
- playlist
-advanced search (and faster btw)
- buddy list (and ignore list)
- multisource downloads (said to be very reliable)
- pause, resume, autoresume, etc downloads
- explore user collection in other tab (where hotlist is placed)
- a cool graph showing the bandwidth used by blubster
- connection issue resolved (yeah, firewall & proxy support for everyone)
- channel based chat (powered by p2pchat)
- mm... well an entire new configuration window with a lot of new options
- improved protocol, bug fixes... you'll see it yourself very soon

Sounds........wow. I'll review it as and when its available. In the mean-time, watch this space... Other news in the world of file-sharing include the new releases of the hardly-nothing-has-changed WinMX 3.2 and Morpheus 1.9. Let me know what you think of these on the message board or by e-mailing me (rishdeep@hotmail.com).

[ LINK ]

Interview with Blubster Developer Pablo + Other news - 23rd April 2002
There is a cool interview with the developer of Blubster, Pablo, available on Zeropaid.com at the link. Apparently, Blubster 2.0 will be available within two weeks. Well.....lets just say I won't be surprised if it's not. Anyways - check it out. Also, news came through yesterday that KaZaA is now back up Download.com after it was removed due to "stealth" software being included in it. You can find out more on this story here.

Just thought I'd let you know that there will be a lack of updates on the site for a while as I've starting revision for my upcoming AS Level exams. So.........wish me luck ;)

[ LINK ]

More Napster News + Blubster 2.0 Nears Completion - 4th April 2002
In the never-ending Napster case that seems to be going on and on....and on, Napster has now been told it has to shut down "properly" until it sorts out its whole filtering system thing. I'm getting kinda bored with this whole fiasco now so if you want more information about it, read it at the link (below).

Exciting news now though - Blubster 2.0 is near completion and Pablo (the wonderful guy working on the client) has released 2 screenshots of what its going to look like. If you thought it couldn't get anymore like Napster, then think again. Check the screenshots out below:

It looks excellent and I can really see it becoming the ultimate Napster Alternative for all. So here's to waiting...

[ LINK ]

KaZaA win Court Appeal - 30th March 2002
KaZaA, who in November had a ruling made against them which told they had to place restrictions on the use of the client, has had the ruling overturned by a Dutch appeals court. This is fantastic news after the amount of loses we peeps have had to deal with because of various court decisions and the like. The statement that was made told that:

"The Amsterdam Court of Justice ruled that Kazaa was not liable for any individuals' abuse of its software, which is being used by millions of people around the world every day to swap copyright-protected games, music, pictures and films."

Buma Stemra, the party prosecuting KaZaA and said to be  a close ally of the RIAA, are told to have been "...stunned by the verdict" (Heh heh). Both the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America, claim that the use of such software poses a very serious threat to sales. It is almost certain that Buma Stemra will appeal further to the Dutch High Court. It is already too late for Kazaa to enjoy this victory since following the November ruling Kazaa sold most of their assets to Australian company Sharman Networks. However, this is a major victory for the world of file-sharing which will provide the community with a real psychological lift after many rulings going against us. More news is available at the link below. Let the P2P revolution continue...

[ LINK ]

Back with a Bang... - 29th March 2002
Yep, it's been around 2 months now that I've been away, but I've managed to get back on the net (albeit on a crawling 56k modem :S) to bring you all the changes in the file-sharing world since I've been away. And, fecking hell, there's been a lot! First is the news with Morpheus. When I was told that they had released a major new version of it's client by my mates, I was really pissed that I wasn't on the net to use it - or give you guys the news on it. But now I'm back, and let me just say now - there has been a MAJOR change with Morpheus and its client with the so called "Preview Edition" release. I created a new article on the WHOLE situation with it and KaZaA at the link on the left "What the hell happened to Morpheus?!" Also, there are not 1, but 2 NEW REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (sorry, got a bit too excited there...). I've reviewed the new Morpheus Preview Edition and the reborn KaZaA clients. You can find them at the links on the left too. Well, its good to be back on the net - and I hope you enjoy the updates...

[ LINK ]

Thats it for now... - 11th February 2002
So......I've rung up the cable modem providers and told them to disconnect my line. Which means NO MORE 512k CAPABILITIES FOR ME NOW! *sob*. Basically, I am currently doing my A Levels and the distraction of having a (very) fast computer with a cable modem in my room is too much for me. So..........looks like this is the end for now - hence, no more updates for a while. I really wanted to get the Blubster review done (still waiting for their next version) and I will try to if I manage to get connected to the net via a 56k modem again. Do check out Blubster now though (at the link) - it is a great file-sharing program and has the most potential to become the best Napster Alternative out there. Do e-mail me if you have any troubles with anything, or simply want to find out how I'm doing :). Anyways, this is goodbye for a while now. Love you all ;) - Rish

[ LINK ]

Limewire Review (finally...) - 3rd January 2002
Well, it took many errors, crashes and freezes of my computer, but I have now got to know Limewire well enough to finish the review. You can check it out at the link...

[ LINK ]

New Reviews! - 19th October 2001
Yep, I've finally added some more reviews to keep you guys entertained. Sorry about the looooong wait, but I've been busy over the past 6 weeks, and I now have a week free to do whatever. So, the reviews are for eDonkey - yes I FINALLY got it working well enough to give it a review, and also XoloX, which is a relatively new Gnutella client which really kicks ass. Check the review's out by clicking on the links on the bar on the left. Oh, and by the way, I've restructured the scores of the file-sharing programs to what I feel they should be now. I didn't give Morpheus/KaZaA an extra point because I'm sympathetic about them being sued, but because its a program that I have been using a lot recently and I really do feel that it is better then what I first interpreted. Also, iMesh loses a point mainly due to the fact that I am now finding it hard to find files due to the low amount of users on its network and also when I tried to re-install it on my machine one day, it filled my PC with a load of spyware clients that didn't please me too much at all. But anyways, I just want to say thanks for all the e-mails of praise that I've been recieving - it really makes it feel that producing this site was worth-while.....

[ LINK ]