Quote:
Originally Posted by rockouthippie
A forum for a binary you can't distribute because someone, anyone in the Winamp food chain...objects.
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There are plenty of successful websites without corporate sponsors.
Why does a website need to distribute a product in order to discuss it? There is freedom of speech in the USA. How can a website (hosted in another country) be shutdown in the USA for discussing Winamp (a digital media player)?
How do you limit a website to only those who download anything by a certain date? Why would anyone try too?
Sure, we all 'agree' to terms of use to install any software. Who even reads these these things, much less fully abides by them. Those who want the final release after AOL pulls the plug will still be able to get it, legal or not. Who is going to try and prove when or how someone acquired Winamp (a digital media player, free to the user)? How do you stop anyone (especially in another country) from providing a new plug-in for Winamp after AOL pulls the plug?
Intellectual property rights and reasonable usage fees should be honored. But we've yet to find a way to do that on a world wide basis for things trafficked on the net.
Sure, Winamp currently contains things that require license fees be paid. Are you saying these things have a built-in kill switch to make them stop working if the fees are not paid? I agree that the owners of these things deserve to be paid. But how does that happen when there are no legal distributors of record. You expect Winamp (still used by several hundred thousand, if not millions, world wide) to disappear because there are no legal distributors?
You can't stop people from sharing between each other on a small scale. Large scale will just go underground, if the demand is there. In the USA, we can't even get a legal distributor in 1 state to paid taxes to another state for what their customers in the other state buy. Illinois is using the 'honor system' (self declare what you buy over the net out of state). Guess how well that's working!
Anyway, there are free alternatives for all the important stuff. Winamp may even be 'adopted' by those in a country with a different view on such things. "VLC" comes to mind in this respect, but who knows what they really do about such matters.
Nothing lasts forever, but even if Winamp becomes a niche product, I expect to spend many more years using and enjoying it, one way or another. That is my hope anyway.
You are getting some ad revenue from the sites you host. You want to get rich doing that? Good luck.
AOL ownership got back their investment in Winamp. If they didn't make the profit they were looking for, it was their own fault. They should just sell it to someone else (who may do a better job of making money with it) and take what they can get. If they still think its worth a huge amount, why try to shut it down?