Aimster: The Next Napster?

[Anderton]

Check this out.

 

It talks about a file-sharing service that works through AOL's instant messenger service, which automatically gives it a friggin' humongous installed base (Napster had "only" 4 million). This looks to be an even wilder ride...whew...

[alphajerk]

yea, i saw this on techtv. and they are claiming its totally legal.

 

there is actually a slew of these programs brewing right now. freetella [hacker based spawn of gnutella fixing some of the gnutella probs], mynapster, freenet, freester, etc. napster is actually having their name ripped off in this WWW. im curious to see if they are going to get pissy about it now.

[Marvster]

As usual, it's going to be a Fair Use battle. The one thing Aimster has going for it is that it's truly based on a one-to-one or one-to-a-few peer network (unless there are teens out there with 20 million people on their Buddy List).

 

However, Aimster is piggybacking on code that is most definitely not open source, and it throws *quite* a wrench in AOL/Time Warner's global domination plans (read: paid music subscription service) if it gets the kind of pickup being predicted. I would look for either a major acquisition or major legal battles here.

 

As for Napster getting pissy about other P2P software, I'd imagine that company will look like a completely different animal in a few months if it actually tries to make something work with BMG. Should be fun to watch!

 

Marv

[Curve Dominant]

P2P's always get a lot of hype out of the gate, and then falter. The biggest obstacle to the proliferation of P2P's is, ironically, human nature. When peeps smell "free goods," they move in for the kill, not realizing that the survival of any peer-to-peer system relies as much on giving as much as taking. Most folks want to just take: this is the mentality that crashed Gnutella. Over 80% of the available files on that network were being provided by less than 35% of the network members. This leads to bottlenecks in the system, not to mention a progressively diminishing participation on the part of those who are maintaining the system. Then there is the factor of "little or no profit incentive." Why should folks concentrate money and time on a venture that yields no material gain? Capital flows in the directions of innovations that ENCOURAGE the generation of profit; inversely, innovations tend to attack ventures that DISCOURAGE the flow of capital.

 

In other words, don't believe the hype.

 

{IMHO}-<@>-the curve--{MPBUY}

[Marvster]

Just saw this:

 

Aimster to Add MSN, Yahoo IM Plug-ins

http://news.webnoize.com/item.rs?eID=20001219&ID=11443

[Anderton]

>>Over 80% of the available files on that network were being provided by less than 35% of the network members. <<

 

...and the number of people who register and post on these boards, as opposed to just "lurk," works much the same way. Which makes me just that more grateful for the people who DO share their knowledge here.

 

Hey Curve Dominant - could you shoot me your email? Mine's canderton@musicplayer.com