WinMX and eDonkey cease operation

[Steve]

Two well known P2P file sharing networks look to be gone as of yesterday. The WinMX network and website are not accessible and the New York offices of eDonkey are reported to be closed, reports Reuters.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a company distributing software that allows copyright infringement can be held liable. The Recording Industry Ass. of America has since been on a 'cease and desist' letter sending spree, with a number of P2P software companies suspected of being the targets.

http://www.hexus.net/content/news/ne...lld19JRD0xNjM0

[YorkieBen]

maybe not totally true??

link

[Steve]

I got an e-mail from Tom at Slyck about this last night. I've updated our article to include this insight now.

[Spud1]

Can only be a good thing The more that close the bigger the remaining ones get, and the bigger they get the better the odds of them being closed too

Eventually we might just get rid of the P2P problem if we're lucky

[winmxuser]

Winmx is back online with the help of two programmers in the community. vladd44.com go to forums for full details. RIAA cant keep us down. Its a family effort. Skeptical, mosey on over and read how. Stand alone program will not allow you to connect but theyve got around the frontcode peer cache. WINMX LIVES forever

[specofdust]

Can only be a good thing The more that close the bigger the remaining ones get, and the bigger they get the better the odds of them being closed too

Eventually we might just get rid of the P2P problem if we're lucky

Peer-to-Peer technology is not a problem. Filesharing of copyrighted works is depending on your standpoint, but technology can't really be described as good or bad, at least not tech like p2p.

But, closures dont matter. New small ones are always springing up, and bit-torrent cant be stopped as easily as other systems can. Peer to Peer and illegal file sharing are both going to be here for a good while yet.

[Nick F]

Winmx is back online with the help of two programmers in the community. vladd44.com go to forums for full details. RIAA cant keep us down. Its a family effort. Skeptical, mosey on over and read how. Stand alone program will not allow you to connect but theyve got around the frontcode peer cache. WINMX LIVES forever

Nice little spam there I am sure the mods will delete your thread.

[specofdust]

While it was fairly imflammatory, it did contain informtation that wasn't already in the thread, imo it shouldn't get deleted.

[skuzgib]

How can it only be good? The technology could be used to deliver legal content too.

I don't see a problem with that post tbh.

[davidstone28]

Is eDonkey the same as eMule?

[Spud1]

How can it only be good? The technology could be used to deliver legal content too.

I don't see a problem with that post tbh.

I mean only be good in terms of reducing piracy

Like it or not the majority of illegal content these days is distributed via p2p - its easy access, anyone can get almost anything without needing the contacts and knowledge that you used to. So the death of these networks is a good thing in that respect

yes I know it has legal uses too, eg with blizzards patching system for WOW - but that is a horrible system thats slow and unreliable, it will never be a match for guarenteed bandwidth that can be offered via the more traditional server/client setup

[autopilot]

eMule is a client application (one of many) for the eDonkey network.

Anyway, as if P2P is anywhere near dead. Maybe large comercial firm's providing applications such as eMule, but more community based projects will pop up all the time. If the authorities really want to stop this (im not sure how they can without new draconian laws that go against the very spirit of the internet) they will need a serious change of tactics.

[mike_w]

I happen to like Bittorrent - it's useful for downloading game demos and, ocassionally, a Linux distro.

[Spud1]

But what's better, guarenteed bandwidth where you can max out your connection, or BT where your lucky to get over 100kps...

It's acceptable for small companies that can't afford 'proper' hosting, but for big rich ones like blizzard it just annoys me, they have the funds and the infastructure to provide the patches on http or ftp servers but they just cheat and use unreliable BT...grrr

[autopilot]

I can't really argue with that logic Spud, a fair point. But on the other hand there are some positives from using BT. There will always be access to the file somewhere, unlike down and overloaded servers (Steam anyone).

[Spud1]

True enough but steam is another issue, thats because valve dont provide all the servers (lots are 3rd party and unreliable), and steam is a poor program anyway - related to this point its terrible at choosing which content server to use, if you look at the stats page on steampowered.com you can see which servers are overloaded and which have lots of room - and for some reason steam always seems to head for the overloaded one...so thats more of an issue with steam than with the tech