Fast Forward Live: The File-Sharing Crackdown

Rob Pegoraro (The Post)

Fast Forward columnist Rob Pegoraro was online to discuss Sunday's column on the recording industry's file-sharing crackdown and answer personal technology questions.

An edited transcript follows.

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Rob Pegoraro: Between computer security and the RIAA's just-announced lawsuits against file-swappers, we've got a lot to talk about today. Let's get rolling...

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Tampa, Fla.: My question concerns computer security. In the wake of Sobig and all the other PC viruses, worms and trojans, could the Post offer a permanent guide to security? I would like to see a list of steps to take to make computers secure. In particular, specific steps to adjust Windows default settings to prevent unauthorized intrusions (such as turning off file sharing) would be very welcome. And I'd like to see this not limited to Windows, but extended to Macs and Linux. If the Post can't do this, can you recommend any particular sites? I recently set up a new Windows PC for my sister, who uses a high-speed cable internet connection. Within 5 minutes she received a pop-up window pitching teen sex.

washingtonpost.com: Post.com has produced a few helpful guides, but probably not as comprehensive as you are looking for. In the meantime, check out: "Five Tips for Computer Security," "A Cybersecurity Primer," and "How to Protect Your Computer From Blaster."

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for those links. I'd add to the collection (if I may be so modest) my newsletter about stopping those pop-up "messenger service" ads: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41027-2003Aug25.html

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Bethesda, Md.: Hi, Rob...

Your timing is great, since the RIAA chose today to file lawsuits against 261 online filesharers.

By now we've heard all of the arguments pro and con - there seems to be little to say on the subject except this:

RIAA, you have decided to proceed with your lawsuits against a handful of "major offenders", most of whom are teenagers and college kids who are effectively judgment-proof. Financially, you will take a bath on this, but no doubt you feel justified in doing so because of the great moral victory you will win. Good for you.

But please remember those good feelings and that moral high ground in the future, when your sales have tanked even further because of people protesting your heavy-handed tactics. At that time, when you are wondering what other scapegoat you can find to blame your steadily decreasing income on, you will have nobody to blame but yourself and this public relations nightmare you have created for yourself.

Meanwhile, file sharing will continue, because you don't have the manpower or the money to even make a dent in the millions of people who are using this technology.

It's time to stop talking about right and wrong and to start talking about reality.

Rob Pegoraro: Let's just say I had reason to be confident that I was writing that column at just the right time :) To answer your question (since as far as I know, nobody from the RIAA is here to answer it), I'd say that the RIAA probably feels that the people it's just sued weren't going to be its customers ever again anyway. The association also feels that legitimate music services are now a valid substitute for peer-to-peer services--but, as I wrote yesterday, I disagree with that contention.

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Mountain Lake Park, Md: Why would I want to use any pay download site when I can buy the whole cd for a few dollars more and have every song not one or two missing from an album purchase? My other question involves the RIAA. Are they looking for people who share bootleg concerts or just people who share songs off of official releases? For example, I brought Bruce Springsteen's The Rising right after it was released. I have downloaded complete concerts from this tour and from previous tours. I share the concerts I have downloaded. The concerts I have downloaded, I would have paid for if they were sold by Bruce.

This brings me to a very important part of why I will Never Ever use the pay download sites till this situation is changed. Why can't the whole album be there to download instead of having some of the songs missing? In the case of Bruce Springsteen, why is this so when he writes all the songs on most of his releases? If it was about copyrights as could be the case with other bands and their songs I could understand some but this man writes 99.9% of what he records and there is no excuse for consumers not being able to download the whole album if they want.

I share about 200 files with concerts of Bruce Springsteen, U2, and The Clash. I do not feel that sharing these are wrong because their is no official release. In the case of Bruce Springsteen the concerts are my favorites even of all the official releases that I have brought of his ever since I became a fan. I also feel this way because they are not out any money by me sharing them.

Also, I do not feel I was wrong to download track 3 from Bruce's release of Tracks when I lost one of the cd's and would have had to buy the whole 4 cd set over when I had 3 cds out of the 4 that worked.

Let me tell you what I think is wrong. My brother got married in June of this year. Family members owned various cds that had songs they wanted played at their wedding. I made a comment in a songwriting forum I was a member of about me taking all the cds and making a master cd with all the songs for the wedding instead of just putting them in one at a time. That founder called me and my family members thieves. He asked how I could have the nerve to bring that up when one of the mentors was a cowriter on that song. That is how radical those in the industry are or some anyhow. What those radicals do not understand is that so many of the songs that are being downloaded can be recorded right off the radio. Recording them off the radio does not make anyone a criminal. Those songs from the radio can be converted into just about any format a person wants. Those radicals do not understand that Chuck D of Public Enemy first proposed back when Napster started that downloads be treated as the radio stations were and royalties be paid to the songwriters and bands that way. With most songs being played on the radio that are downloaded what is left are concerts that are downloaded.

In closing my last comment would be this. The music industry was found guilty of price fixing. The amount they were ordered to pay back per consumer came to about 1 buck. If this industry was found guilty of this how can they justify the high penalties they give on those who are sharing files? It seems to me that the two should be even in the amount having to be paid. So what matters is not the consumers but those corporations who get what amounts for nothing for breaking the law compared to what those who have been caught sharing files and have paid are.

Rob Pegoraro: A long comment here, but one that raises a number of things worth thinking about (I say this as a guy who confessed in print to downloading a Springsteen bootleg a few years ago. No lawsuits yet :)

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Baton Rouge, La.: According to your article, 57 million people are sharing files. Isn't the record industry doomed to the same success the government had with Prohibition?

Rob Pegoraro: Possibly. As Donald Rumsfeld might put it, that answer is unknowable--there has to be some price level for online music sales that would drive peer-to-peer services completely out of business, because most people are lazy as well as cheap. They'll pay for convenience. But is that level below the level of profit a major label will accept today? Below the level it will accept after another two years of losing sales to P2P?

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Ashburn, Va.: Hi Rob, when do they expect Itunes to be available for Microsoft users? I tried to call the company and the operator had no clue.

Jane

Rob Pegoraro: Apple is continuing to say "by the end of the year"--my knowledge goes no further than that.

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Kansas City, Mo.: I recently bought a "best of" CD that had 22 songs on it. I paid less than $8.00 for the disk. That works out to about $.36 a song. The CD I bought was of Louis Armstrong and I'm sure neither he or his ancestors are going to see a dime of that money just like the vast majority of music being copied and traded on-line. So my question is this; How much is a song worth? And who gets the money? Is the coping of music and giving it away, music that by definition is CHEAP, worthy of being called criminal?

Rob Pegoraro: How much a song worth? That's totally relative. Most of the Beethoven CDs I have include only 4 or 6 movements, and classical CDs tend to be on the expensive side. But I've gladly paid the equivalent of $3 or $4 per "song" in this case.

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Oxford, Ohio: For the response to the ad-blocking for the person in Tampa, you can actually change the security settings in Internet explorer and other browsers in addition to what Rob has mentioned. Setting blocks to ActiveX and Java will help but that compromises your applets that you want to view.

Rob Pegoraro: Yes, shut off ActiveX. No, do not shut off Java. There's no significant security exposure in running Java, nor is it even used in most ads (it takes too long for the Java applet to load).

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Washington, D.C.: How is downloading a song any different than purchasing a used CD from a used CD retailer? Don't used CD stores deny artists/labels royalties on product sold? Also, if a title is "out of print," but available online via P2P, does it still violate copyright?

Rob Pegoraro: If the original seller of a used CD made a copy and kept it for him/herself, then, no, there's no difference between downloading a song and buying a used CD. The "first sale" doctrine underlying the legality of used CD sales (why do I feel like I'm channeling Greta Van Susteren here?), however, assumes there's only one copy in existence. Yes, copyright law says it's still illegal to trade in out-of-print material. In practical terms, though, I'd say it takes some real chutzpah to accuse somebody of stealing when you won't even let them give you their money in the first place.

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Duluth, Ga.: Just FYI, according to the copyright law, it is NOT illegal to make ONE copy for your own personal use. The music industry never mentions this. So it is legal to make a copy of your friend's CD, and it is legal to copy a movie of a movie channel. It is legal to make a Star Trek uniform to go to a con. It is NOT legal to download music off the Internet, because they folks don't have permission to post the music for download. Ever read the FBI warning at the beginning of a movie? It says it is illegal to use the copy you are about to view for Public Performance (charging admission) or for distribution (giving away or selling). The same with music off the Internet.

Rob Pegoraro: Bzzt! What part of "your own personal use" includes giving the CD to somebody else?

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Ashburn, Va.: Me again. I have no problem paying per song if it were possible. I had even told my two kids I would give them $10 a month each to buy music with (anything above that would come out of their pockets), but we can't find a service that will accommodate their MP3 players, which is what they want the songs for. My neighbor has IPODs and she has given her kids $20 a month each. I think the record industry is losing out.

Jane

Rob Pegoraro: This I agree on. There seems to be a peculiar degree of faith in the music business that people will voluntarily throw out millions of perfectly good MP3 players. (The only reason Apple can get away with not offering MP3s is because the iPod is so popular, and so, IMHO, good in the first place. But even then, I think it's pushing its luck.)

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Melbourne, Australia: How many pixels do you need in a digital camera? I'm sure one or two mega pixels is fine -- if you use more your just using up your memory?

Rob Pegoraro: Let's take a quick break from music ethics for a couple of unrelated questions... 2 MP is the minimum if you want to make any prints, but 3 is better (the extra margin lets you crop a photo and still get a high-quality print). If you want to make 8-by-10s, get 4 or 5.

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Research Triangle Park, NC: How can I send and receive voice messages from a Power Mac G4 to a PC? iChat exchanges text messages but does not seem to exchange voice messages. Is other software available?

Rob Pegoraro: Don't know of any way to do this yet. Apple says iChat AV uses some standard protocols, but I haven't heard of them being implemented in comparable software for Windows in whatever way would be needed to allow true interpretability.

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Beltsville, Md.: Are you familiar with an outfit called "PC Retro"? They sell computers that are no longer state of the art but are perfectly adequate for many low-intensity tasks (like Internet and word processing).

Well, supposing (because it's true) I need a computer for such tasks and don't want to over-spend. What would be the major differences between buying an older machine and getting a over-low end new one, like the $400 CPU-Monitor-Printer combo one of the major electronic retailers is advertising this week?

Rob Pegoraro: Point me to this company's Web site and I can tell--the answer depends on how old these machines are and what sort of software is loaded on them.

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Spam question: A little bizarre, but please help if you can. I moved from comcast to cox territory. Although I can't send emails from the now-defunct comcast account, I have been able to retrieve email (to follow-up with people I forgot to inform about the email change, etc.) In the past month or two, I have been inundated (30/day!;) with emails saying that my attempt to join a Yahoo Group, or send this or that file, has been denied b/c there is a virus attached. Of course, I haven't been sending anything, but someone using my old account (or at least the name of the account). I have a Mac, so it is not infected with any of the recent viruses. What could be happening? Thanks for any thoughts.

Rob Pegoraro: It's a consequence of Sobig--it keeps firing off e-mails with forged return addresses, based on whatever e-mail addresses it can find on the infected computer. I've had the exact same problem myself.

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Millersville, Md.: I am using a LINKSYS WAP 802.11b Router to allow my wife's computer to access COMCAST with a USB Adapter. Does this give me good hardware FIREWALL protection, or should I also reinstall ZONE ALARM? BTW, I had ZONE ALARM before going to the Router setup and uninstalled it, only with great difficulty and with help from the companies technicians.

Rob Pegoraro: Not sure which Linksys product you're talking about, but the easiest way to test is to visit a security-test Web site (go to grc.com and click on the "Shields Up" logo, for instance). If it says you've got ports open, then there isn't a firewall built into your access point, and you'll need to add one back to your PC.

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Charlevoix, Mich.: Rob:

I received some advice about buying a new desktop. Make sure the screen is big enough and stick with one of the big 3 manufacturers (HP-Compaq, IBM, and Dell.) Good advice?

Rob Pegoraro: Well here's what I wrote on that subject last year. Most of it, I think, is still relevant.

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Herndon, Va.: How do I remove a -Hardcore Movies- line that shows up when I right click my mouse?

I've searched for it, but my 2002 model Dell Pent 4, XP Home edition can't find it.

Thanks,

Rob

Rob Pegoraro: You've got some kind of spyware on your computer. Go to www.lavasoftusa.com and download yourself a copy of AdAware.

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Dunkirk, Md.: Rob, first of all, thanks for your column. It's always very useful and enjoyable. Is there a service available in the DC area for those of use who want to integrate different components purchased from various retailers? I have a DSS receiver/DVR, a DVD recorder, and a Bose surround sound, and I'm having difficulty connecting the surround sound so that I can use it for both the DSS (ext. 1 on my TV) and the DVD (ext. 2). Thank you.

Rob Pegoraro: I feel your pain. I would imagine that some of the electronics retailers, or at least the higher-end ones, would offer such a service. What kind of a world is this where it's harder to plug in a TV than to set up a computer, anyway?

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Washington: Hi! I'd like to buy a laptop but the choices seem overwhelming and everyone I ask for advice tells me something different. I've read your laptop guide, but am even more confused by the choices out there. I want it mostly for wireless internet access (wifi) and for some work, mostly word processing and a little excel. Also for photographs (a digital camera will likely be my next purchase). Some people have recommended macs, which I like the idea of because I wouldn't have to worry about viruses but I hear there are downsides. I don't do any gaming so that's not an issue. Also, I'm pretty clueless about computers and would need something easy to configure and keep up to date. Given all of that, what would you recommend for me? Thanks in advance.

Rob Pegoraro: I'd recommend a Mac, for the reasons you describe. IPhoto is a really good program, and the other tasks you describe are perfectly feasible on a Mac. The one downside is that you'd need to buy a copy of Microsoft Office, but you'd also need to do that with most new PC laptops--unless you buy a corporate configuration, most manufacturers now only include Microsoft Works.

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Bethesda, Md.: Question on firewalls. I still use a dial-up connection and have turned on XP's firewall. Should I still use an additional firewall (especially as I can get the basic Zone Alarm for free)?

Rob Pegoraro: You're probably fine with just that. The XP firewall is quite limited, but if you're on dial-up you're probably not doing any of the things that would require adjusting what ports are open.

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Tysons Corner, Va.: Rob:

Does the law that allows personal use of home-taped recordings (e.g., taping off the radio) not apply to downloads from the Internet? In other words, why is it illegal for me to download a song off Kazaa for my personal listening use only when I can legally obtain the same recordings off the radio? Or am I mistaken and it has always been illegal for me to tape off the radio?

Rob Pegoraro: Before I go any further, I think it's worth restating one of my favorite acronyms: IANAL That means "I Am Not A Lawyer." So don't take anything I say here as any sort of binding legal advice; it's worth no more than what you paid to read it. That said, my understanding is that copyright law has an entire class of exceptions for broadcasts, based in part on the assumption that people will tape them for their own use. So, for instance, Webcasters have to pay royalties for each song broadcast (radio stations in the U.S. do not, for reasons way too complicated to explain here).

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RE: Firewalls: I'm using a college T1 connection and using the XP firewall. What did you mean by there was nothing that a dial-up connection does that requires adjusting ports?

Rob Pegoraro: The reasons you'd want to have ports open--to allow remote login access via SSH, to run an FTP or Web server, to engage in online gaming--generally require a fast and always-on connection.

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mac-users: Like the previous poster, I feel like some of the sites I've visited (nothing too risque, but occasionally off-center) have left downloaded items on my computer. Anything you can recommend for an imac user to search and eliminate foreign objects? Thanks!

Rob Pegoraro: Because you're using a Mac, you're probably safe. I'm not aware of any spyware that afflicts the Mac at all. That's not to say some could be written, but there are aspects of the way Mac OS X runs that would make it harder for spyware to implant itself on your system without you having to authorize it first.

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Iowa City, Iowa: As all of us usenet oldies know, you can download tons of copyrighted material via usenet. How come the industry hasn't gone after usenet as ferociously yet?

Rob Pegoraro: Because finding out who posted something to an alt.binaries* newsgroup is a pain! (All of my initial MP3 downloads--for research purposes only :)--were off of newsgroups.) Peer-to-peer services, by contrast, require somebody to be online continuously. I actually believe the RIAA when it says that it's not trying to eliminate all file-sharing. This game is all about bringing it down to a more manageable level by suppressing the simplest and easiest ways to steal/share music (use the verb of your choice).

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Washington, D.C.: For the RIAA to discover the persons who are the most egregious violators, don't they have to get permission from your Internet provider to access your files? Also, it's kind of hard for me to feel sorry for these artist when I watch MTV cribs and see these same artist step out of their Bentleys or watch "E" to find out that Beyonce spends 4 grand a night on a hotel room.

Rob Pegoraro: What permission? The MP3 files in question are in public, shared folders. There's no permission needed at all. In answer to your second comment, it's worth noting that not all artists are rich, and some are close to broke. At what point is a musician wealthy enough to be worthy of file-sharing?

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Indianapolis: Is the future of digital music in the hands of independent performers or record companies? Why should a young musical act continue to support the current label system?

Rob Pegoraro: That's an excellent question, but it's not a new one. Musicians have been debating this for years--Courtney Love has spoken about it, and we've done news stories on this as well. It's very easy to get screwed by record labels... just ask the guys in a local band called the Dismemberment Plan, which signed a major-label deal just in time to have their new album sit in limbo for a year or so. But a lot of bands still seem to feel that it's worth the risks of signing with a major if it means getting that marketing power behind them.

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Fairfax, Va.: Re: The ethics of downloading music

I know that I may be placing an exorbitant amount of faith in humanity here, but do you think it's immoral for people to treat mp3's more or less as CD-quality, customized radio.

I'm a big-time CD buyer (currently own over 300, I think, and no plans to stop), but I constantly download individual tracks for which I would never purchase the album. I also download many CDs pre-purchase, to decide if I'll enjoy them or not. If anything, this has spurred me to buy MORE music, because I "risk" downloading an artist's work much more hastily than I'll risk buying their album (I listen to punk/metal, so most of my favorites never hit radio).

Your thoughts on this mode of operation? And do you think I overestimate how likely people are to behave responsibly?

Rob Pegoraro: I talked about this with Weiss, Grokster's CEO, for a bit last week. I know this from my own CD rack--I never would have bought Television's "Marquee Moon" if I hadn't found an MP3 of the title track on a newsgroup years ago. The problem is that many file sharers don't buy CDs, period. That's something they no longer do at all. The music industry's only hope of reaching them is with attractively priced downloads that are easier to get to than on any peer-to-peer service.

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Water St., N.Y.: Do you have to actually download something from an e-mail to get the viruses, or just open the e-mail?

Rob Pegoraro: *If* you've installed all the security updates to Outlook or Outlook Express, you won't get a virus by reading e-mail. (So far as I know these two programs--by what company? yes, that's right, Microsoft!--are the only to suffer this level of vulnerability.) Just don't click on the attachment unless you actually expected to get it. When in doubt, ask the sender.

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Alexandria, Va.: Sadly it seems that some folks have mistaken MTV for reality.

Nevertheless, as the current fracas with RIAA has demonstrated, the system is fundamentally flawed. Until there are alternatives in the marketplace that are #1 cheap, #2 easy, and #3 perceived as equitable, we will continue to see the situation deteriorate and individuals and organizations embarrass themselves in the court of public opinion.

Rob Pegoraro: Well said.

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Norton and Reformatting: What is your opinion on Norton Firewall? I have had a lot of problems with it - the intrusion detection seems to work too good (tried to block Wash Post). Also, how do you re-format in XP Home?

Rob Pegoraro: I've got a reviewer working on a comparison of the Symantec and McAfee security products for this Sunday--we should have an answer for you then. To reformat XP--you're talking about nuking the hard drive back to the Stone Age, then reinstalling everything from scratch, right?--you'll have to boot from the XP CD and select a "new install" option. We ran some more exact directions in the Ask the Computer Guy column, but I can't find a link to that--e-mail me and I can dig them up.

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washingtonpost.com: FYI - The "Ask the Computer Guy" column on Windows XP is here.

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Dallas: Regarding the sharing that's going on on the Usenet. - I'm an inhouse attorney for a company whose goods (NOT music or movies) are being traded on the Usenet. We're suing 2 of the pirates already in federal court and we have 6 more cases ready to file. Our industry is trying very hard to eliminate the illegal trading that's going on with the Usenet.

Rob Pegoraro: Well, here's one answer for the guy who asked about binaries newsgroups...

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D.C.: Rob,

Have you had a chance to test out the Nomad Zen NX and what are your thoughts? Also, any thoughts on Thunderbird and the Bayesian Filters for SPAM?

Thanks

Rob Pegoraro: Haven't tried the Zen NX as yet. I like T-bird as it is, but it's definitely much earlier in the development process than Firebird (I'm talking about an e-mail/newsgroups offshoot of the Mozilla Internet suite). In particular, as a POP client it's pretty atrocious.

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Arlington, Va.: Realistically, what are the implications of this crackdown on individuals who may have downloaded a few songs off sharing systems such as Morpheus, Kazaa, etc, but not hundreds of songs? Is there a scale of "guilt" that someone may be impacted by?

Rob Pegoraro: You said "downloaded," so I can say with some confidence that your risk is nil. There's no way the RIAA can tell what you've downloaded without searching the non-public folders on your hard drive, something that would incur an immense degree of bad karma and bad PR.

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Fairfax, Va.: Posted just a moment ago, so pardon me for hogging your time.

I did just have this one "brilliant" flash of curiosity -- is the RIAA doing any self-reflection whatsoever to figure out whether the industry itself shares the blame for producing a stunningly mediocre crop of artists?

I know it's been chic to complain about pop music for some time, but couldn't this whole digital music piracy thing be, at least in part, a sham for the fact that today's music is simply exciting a smaller number of people?

Rob Pegoraro: That's quite possible--you'll notice that I didn't trot out the usual statistic about declining CD sales in yesterday's column, simply because I haven't seen the case made that file-sharing explains all or most of those lost sales. (Another possible explanation: The industry has put out fewer releases.)

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Beltsville, Md.: PC Retro is at http://www.pcretro.com

Rob Pegoraro: From briefly skimming over what they offer on the home page, I'm not overly impressed. A desktop Pentium II is *really* slow--especially considering you can get a much more capable machine for another $100 or so by buying new.

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Iowa City, Iowa: Question about copyright law:

Suppose I were to check out a CD (yes, my library checks out CDs) at the local library and copied it with my burner? Would that be illegal also? What about DVDs?

Rob Pegoraro: Yes, I'm pretty sure that's illegal as well, just as if you Xeroxed a book you borrowed. The fact that's it's so much easier to copy a CD doesn't change the underlying principle.

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Baltimore: When does the copyright on a song expire? Is it illegal to share "old songs?" I see sharing these songs as just a more effective distribution system.

Rob Pegoraro: Some songs are in the public domain. But it takes a long time for copyrights to expire, thanks to Congress continually extending the term of copyrights each time the entertainment industry comes begging. Read Larry Lessig's blog sometime (www.lessig.org) if you want to read up on this; he was the lawyer on the most recent suit to challenge this practice.

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Bethesda, Md.: To Dallas, who wrote about his company suing two people over copyright violation.

Without knowing more about your situation, I am not going to blast you as I did the RIAA. But in any event I'm sure you must realize that 2 (or even 8) people is an insignificant speck in the online sharing community, and that while you might be able to shut these particular people down, there will likely be others willing and able to pick up where they left off.

Also, Rob, in your reply to my original post, I think you missed the implication that people ASIDE from the ones who are actually being sued are going to stop buying CDs. I have, and I own hundreds of them already. And many of my colleagues planned to follow suit when the lawsuits were filed.

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for the follow-up. I've read enough "I'm not buying any more CDs" postings and e-mails to know that a lot of people are angry with the way the RIAA is acting. That's the risk the RIAA runs--filing lawsuits in this way is more of a political act than a legal act. The organization wants to be feared at some level, but it may wind up only being hated.

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Olney, Md.: Apropos to today's topic of the RIAA, have you seen yesterday's "User Friendly"?

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20030907

Rob Pegoraro: Heh. Cute...

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Vienna, Va.: Does streaming video offer a way for hackers to attack a computer?

Rob Pegoraro: Not that I know of.

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Washington, D.C.: Hello. I am pretty sure my computer was hacked into. It's a desktop, and I have used iMesh, BearShare, etc. I notice that certain files keep appearing that shouldn't be there, and are updated when I'm not on the computer. One is called update.tim. My question is, with XP Home, how can I reformat? I have Norton Firewall - which seems to be too good that it's frustrating, but the person who got in is still updating files on my computer. What can I do now?

Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: Try running AdAware. A firewall won't do any good once programs are already resident on your computer--either because they arrived in e-mail, or because you installed them as part of other software. As an aside: *This* is what I'm talking about when I say that peer-to-peer services can be beat. Give somebody a legitimate option that's fairly priced and that won't infect their computer with spyware filth, and people will pay.

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Rob Pegoraro: To follow up on what I just wrote about streaming video--I typed too soon. There have been security holes in RealPlayer and Windows Media Player. Note to Express: Please don't use that answer in print. Or this one :)

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Amarillo, Texas: I'm interested in purchasing a camcorder and I'm intrigued with the new camcorders that record onto DVDs. I've heard that the discs are really expensive ($25+) and that the footage takes up a lot of space on a hard drive. However, I want to be able to edit my daughter's soccer game footage into a "highlights" video for college coaches. Is DVD the best way to achieve what I'm after - ease of editing large amounts of footage onto one video, with good transitions between segments? If I record onto a regular VHS tape (like our 20 year-old camcorder uses), I'm going to have to hire a professional videographer to capture selected footage from all the tapes and get the kind of "highlights" video that college coaches are asking for. Can I accomplish this myself with a regular digital camcorder, or with a DVD recorder? HELP!

Rob Pegoraro: If you want to edit video at all, the best way is with a computer and a DVD recorder. The discs aren't nearly as expensive as you think--blank recordables go for $5 each, less if bought in bulk. And hard drives are cheap enough that the disk space issue shouldn't be a big concern on a new computer.

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Olney, Md.: Rob, I'm looking at cordless phones, and I can't for the life of me figure out how to find one that does what I want and won't interfere with my Wi-Fi home network without settling for a 900MHz phone. (I'm not worried about the wavelength, only that the 900 MHz models tend to be older and have weaker batteries and fewer features.) From what I have gathered, DSS encryption hoses a lot of channels on that frequency, so they're out. Analog is probably the least likely to cause interference, but doesn't provide any protection against eavesdropping, and I'm used to the security of my 900MHz DSS phone. So I guess what I'm asking is, how secure do you think digital cordless phones without DSS are, and will a 2.4GHz digital phone interfere with my wireless router?

Rob Pegoraro: The cordless-phone folks, having noticed that their product can interfere with more valued hardware, have started selling 5.8 GHz phones. (But then you'll suffer interference if you install an 802.11a network.) There are a few 900 MHz DSS phones, but not more than a handful. It's amazing how this industry appears to be ignoring what customers need in this way.

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Mclean, Va.: Is there any resource against Web sites that dump all sorts of junk on our machine? If it is illegal for me to steal/use material from their site, it must be illegal for them to Cookie, java-kill, or spyware dump on my computer.

Rob Pegoraro: At least in terms of simple ethics, I think you're right. I am amazed that anybody with a legitimate program to offer would consent to have it bundled with spyware, but some people seem perfectly willing to whore themselves in that way.

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Rob Pegoraro: I'm going to post w/o comment a few thoughts I see here on MP3 ethics, since we're running late here.

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Ithaca, N.Y.: What I've always found interesting is how this is something that the major labels are adamant about but indies have been far more receptive to. Ian MacKaye of Dischord has encouraged fans to download Fugazi's live music, Greg Ginn has noted that his (SST) albums are always heard by more than one person when someone purchases them.

In a lot of ways, I see the mp3 thing as very similar to the cassette tape "crisis" of the late 70's, which the RIAA said would ultimately put the music industry out of business. Most people I know use mp3's to get more excited about music, and as a way to tell if they like the band. Sort of like a radio.

My Steve Albini side can't help but wonder if the role of artwork on a CD (much smaller than a record) has helped to lower the consumer incentive for purchasing an album.

Personally, I haven't downloaded any music from a band on a major label or bought a CD from a major since audiogalaxy was shut down, which is a shame, because I'd really like to buy some Sonic Youth stuff.

Rob Pegoraro: thanks

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Baltimore: Re: RIAA:

The RIAA's righteous indignation is eclipsed only by its hypocrisy; its member record companies have traditionally screwed their artists out of every red cent they could, through fraudulent accounting, hiding of royalties, etc, and the signing of naive artists to unconscionable contracts. And let's not forget the packaging tricks they use to get people to buy the same copyrighted material three or four times over (e.g. compilation albums, remastering). What this latest round of strong-arming has done is allow the public to see them for the creeps they really are.

Rob Pegoraro: Here's another...

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Water St., N.Y.: Is it possible that the declining CD sales are due to Web sites such as half.com, ebay, and amazon that sell used CDs that probably aren't registered by the RIAA? I know I look for most of my CDs on half.com before I go to traditional stores now to see if I can get a used copy for cheaper.

Rob Pegoraro: Interesting point!

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Washington, D.C.: What makes file swapping different than recording from the radio? The quality you say?

If one could download a radio-stream-quality music piece legally, or obtain the different pieces with radio quality online, then the real high-quality mp3 files would not be as tempting and the problem might not exist at all.

What I see is a piece of freedom taken, namely to listen for free to music, just like listening to the radio.

V.O.

Rob Pegoraro: Another view

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Philadelphia: Why does the RIAA insist on sucking the dollars out of consumers by over charging for cd prices? It's obvious that the major labels have grown accustomed to inflated profits. Cds cost little to make - the artist sees little in the way of income from those cds, so most of that money goes back to the label. I hope this will wake up all Americans that purchase cds, because the one thing that the RIAA doesn't take into account is that cds are not essential to human life therefore, nobody really needs to buy cds. In today's information age, the RIAA is operating under archaic premises. Instead of suing consumers, they should be evolving as an organization, so basically, they are only hurting themselves in the long run.

Rob Pegoraro: And yet another...

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Crofton, Md.: I've got the laptop and the wi-fi card, can you point me in the right direction for tracking down free "hot spots?" I have only managed to find one freeby (a bookshop about 20 miles from me). I use the connection at starbucks and borders, but at $6 per hr, that gets expensive. Thanks, love your column.

Rob Pegoraro: Most freebies don't want to become too popular--they still have to pay for their own bandwidth. Your best probably is a non-chain coffeeshop, bookstore or computer store nearby. But there's no easy way to find one online.

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Anywhere!??!: Rob --

Someone just told me about Sprint "PCS Connection Cards". Supposedly they allow your laptop to connect to the web anywhere Sprint has service. The modem itself costs about $200 and plugs into a standard expansion slot. Do they work? Are they more reliable/wider range than a wireless network card?

Thanks!

Rob Pegoraro: Sorry I overlooked this before, Anywhere. Sprint's cards use its CDMA 1XRTT service, aka "PCS Vision." They'll get you 40-100 kbps downloads while you're in range. It's no WiFi, in other words, but Vision (like Verizon's Express Network, which uses the same basic technology) it covers much more ground.

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Washington, D.C.: Is there a list of names of RIAA defendants yet?

Rob Pegoraro: Nope, not yet. We're working on putting such a list together, of course.

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Somewhere, USA: Despite all the complaints posted here, none of you have said that you are going to stop buying CDs. All you say are that I shall stop downloading/complaints against the RIAA. Unless we step up and boycott the sale of CDs, RIAA will continue to pursue this "hateful" way of getting things their own way. And I am sure that people would not stop buying because of their genuine love for music or reasons that I cannot comprehend immediately here. But we should be firm in whatever step we take to fight against these companies.

Rob Pegoraro: One last comment to close things out.

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Rob Pegoraro: Emotional issue, like Larry King always says. Thanks to all who stopped by to vent about it. E-mail me if I missed your question, and I should be here again in a couple of weeks.

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