Unless you have been living under a rock, you can’t fail to be aware of the huge hype and publicity surrounding Apple’s latest product: the iPad. Marketed as a cross between a laptop and a smart-phone, the device has been much anticipated. However, the key question on most people’s minds was not whether it would look the part, but more whether it would play files downloaded from file-sharing site, Ares Vista.
Rumors had circulated that Apple would install anti piracy software to prevent users from accessing files not downloaded from Apple’s own iStore. This would have been a huge disappointment to the millions of Ares Vista users out there. After all, most of them have spent a huge amount of time building a massive catalogue of music and video, all downloaded from the largest file-sharing website on the planet.
To have spent all those hard earned dollars on a brand new Apple iPad, only to take it home and be unable to play your library of music, would be a total disaster. Thankfully, however, Apple saw sense and Ares Vista users can relax and continue to enjoy downloading new material from the most popular file-sharing site in the world.
Hope you enjoyed reading the article. Read more similar articles on Ares Vista here: Ares: Is it no charge or illegal?
Interesting Filesharing News: LimeWire Case Lost
In what could be a wake-up call to the file sharing industry, the RIAA were victorious in their court case against Lime Wire group. What could prove to be even more important, however, is the implication by the judge in her decision of founder Mark Gorton. This could mean that the courts are starting to view the founders and directors of companies to be responsible for ultimate use of the software by users. This has far-reaching and rather startling consequences.
In the current case, the RIAA is clearly that it is entitled to statutory damages of $150,000 for each registered work on which copyright has been infringed. It will also seek an injunction against Lime Wire to prevent it partaking in any file sharing activities. This is all worrying news for Lime Wire and all of its many users.
Lime Wire is something of an industry giant. A recent survey showed that of all the people who admitted to downloading copyrighted music, 55% used LimeWire to get it. If this preliminary decision is upheld, then these users will be looking for a new filesharing download client.
The software and network that these file sharers choose could well be influenced by its vulnerability to similar court proceedings. People are reluctant to throw in their lot with software that is likely to be out of use again in a few months. In this vein, open source project like Ares will likely find a lot of support since it would be a very slippery difficult target to sue. It is not of course impossible for the RIAA to bring a court action against Ares, but finding someone to get money from will be the difficult part.
These are interesting times for filesharing. The industry though is used to the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune, and all bets must be on it to weather this particular storm.