A lot of web apps seem to be targeted at problems that nobody actually has. SoundCloud is smarter than that, focusing on a problem we have at least once a week: what's the best way to send a song to a friend? E-mail is a pain, you might not have ready access to an FTP server, and those weird Rapidshare-style upload sites can be more trouble than they're worth.
SoundCloud basically does two things: it sends music, and it receives music. It's the ideal setup for sending around demo copies of that new album you just finished mastering, or sharing the latest hit single (that you would never pirate because you're a law-abiding Internet citizen). There's great control over email notifications for new tracks sent to you and new comments on your songs, and you can play a song right from your SoundCloud account before you download it.
In terms of comments, the SoundCloud system is awesome. You can drop in a note at a specific point in a track -- Viddler users might be familiar with this feature for videos -- and follow your stats to see how many people are listening to your stuff. This just scratches the surface of SoundCloud's features, so be sure to check it out and apply for an invitation if it sounds interesting to you.
If it turns out that the Internet collapses under the weight of all our uploaded files, we will blame it all on the incredible, and seemingly unstoppable, growth of file upload services like File Dropper.
File Dropper is yet another file upload service that will host your files up to 5 GB. As far as file sharing services go, it couldn't be easier to use:
On the main File Dropper page, you click the upload button, browse to the file you wish to upload, and the file is automatically uploaded to the File Dropper servers. After the upload is complete, you will be taken to a page with a link to send to your friends or co-workers. All they have to do is follow the link and hit the download button, and the file is theirs.
As a free service, File Dropper meets the basic needs of file sharing: upload, share, and download. If you want more enhanced features, such as the ability to protect your files with a password, or the inclusion of a handy file manager, you'll have to pony up the dough, with plans starting at $0.99 a month.
When File Dropper first saw the light of day a few weeks ago, its Achilles heel was quickly discovered: the uploads and downloads were terminally slow. Some time has passed since its initial release, so we figured that we'd test it out again:
Limewire is one of the most popular Peer to Peer file sharing applications around, and it's easy to see why. With its simple but powerful interface, it's the next best thing to old school Napster. One thing that cheapskates and teenagers don't like about it, however, is its tendency to nag the user to upgrade to Limewire Pro for a fee.
Enter Frostwire. virtually indiscernible from Limewire, this program works just fine. It allows the user to download just about any kind of file from a massive community of Limewire and Gnutella users. Hypothetically it's possible to get copyrighted music as well, but you'd never even think about such a thing, we're sure.
Frostwire is available for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Ubuntu and Debian users can grab it from Synaptic, and everyone else can check out the download site.
RIAA defendant number THX1139 Jammie Thomas has been handed a verdict in a federal jury trial which could see her coughing up $220,000 in cash for sharing a grand total of 24 songs.
The verdict rests on the RIAA claim that "making available", the simple-to-prove act of creating search-able filenames on a filesharing network, is in itself proof of piracy. So, does this mean that the RIAA's longstanding battle to solidify its "making available" claims is valid, and other cases with similar arguments are a done deal? Not necessarily says attorney Ray Beckerman, "There is no basis in the law for the theory; sooner or later -- when appeals finally start filtering through the system -- the courts will put the kabash on it."
Ms. Thomas' case isn't a unique one. In recent years the RIAA has sued over 20,000 people in the United States, one of the few places in the world which allows recording industry lawyers to pierce the veil of privacy without the substantial burden of evidence proving wrongdoing.
The court awarded the RIAA over $9000 per song shared in compensation for losses, a stiff penalty by any measure, but far below the statutory maximum of $150,000 per song. "A verdict of $222,000.00, for infringement of 24 song files worth a total of $23.76?" says Beckerman, adding, "All the business people who make a living from the vibrancy, democracy, and freedom of expression which is the internet, need to get behind the RIAA's victims; if they do not, the world in which they hope to thrive and prosper will disappear rapidly."
Before BitTorrent was all the rage in peer to peer file sharing, you may remember that the easiest way to illegally obtain music, movies, and other files was through file sharing programs like Lime Wire, BearShare, Morpheus. You know, the children of Napster.
Of course, now Napster's gone legit and sells music. It looks like Lime Wire is looking to follow suit. The company has announced plans to open a music download store.
The store will be web-based, although you'll be able to access the site from links in Lime Wire's file-sharing software. So far the company has signed up IRIS Distribution and Nettwerk Productions. Content will be available as MP3s, and customers will be able to buy individual songs and albums or pay a monthly fee for subscription plans.
Over the past two weeks, we've dished out a bucketload of invites to all the hottest Web 2.0 services and more, as part of our Invite-a-Palooza. Like all good things, however, it does have to come to an end. That said, we felt we had to go out with some sort of a bang.
Day 10: Pownce
We've looked pretty comprehensively at Pownce since its initial launch, with an in-depth look at the service's pros and cons, and the news that an API is slated for September. It's been one of the most in-demand invite-only services to date, and today, the Download Squad team have pooled their invites to send out to you, our dear readers.
Altogether we have 65 invites for Pownce, and to nab one all you need to do is comment below and confirm your comment!
UPDATE: All the Pownce invitations have been spoken for and the Invite-a-palooza has drawn to a close. Thanks to all the readers who participated and a special shout-out to all the sites we featured over the last several days:
The statement was directed to a panel of judges mulling over the legality of a Spanish file-sharing case, and could be a harbinger of things to come in the EU. Kokott's declaration essentially asserts that although ISPs can be required to turn over identities in criminal matters, file-sharing is a civil issue and therefor doesn't enjoy the same legal privileges.
Debbie Foster who recently went head to head with RIAA and then subsequently won a dismissal with prejudice in Capitol Records v. Fosteris also getting the last laugh since her attorney's fees of $68,685.23 must be paid by RIAA.
The saga began in November 2004 when Foster was sued by RIAA for copyright infringement. Rather than bowing down and taking it, Foster denied the allegations and began a legal fight with the music industry which just ended with her award for the attorney's fees.
The $68,685.23 award represents Foster's attorney's fees, and does not include the nice, big, fat attorney fees of RIAA's own counsel. You can make a fair assumption those fees are at least that of Ms. Foster's, if not more.
Let's see. Two years, hundreds of thousands of dollars, bad press, huge loss in court - not pretty. There's an old saying "He who laughs last, laughs best." As RIAA licks its wounds and hopefully figures out a new paradigm, we're laughing with Ms. Foster today.
With lots of competition in the market for online storage of images, text, audio, video, OneDump enters and tries to sneak in with a simplistic approach.
OneDump offers free unlimited storage for all types of files, from audio, images, and text, but what makes them different is their straightforward approach that makes it easier to upload and share files. OneDump not only lets users host files but it also lets you link to them to use on social networks, websites and blogs. The OneDump Quicksend method open to registered users allows them to directly upload images, audio and text files by sending them as email attachments, this also includes files sent from mobile devices.
Service drawbacks, you can only upload 10 files at once, with a 5MB cap on each. With a lot of competition out there, look at other image storing sites look to DivShare, PirateBay, AllYouCanUpload, Flickr, or this link that contains a list of 50 other services that host files from 10mb to 20mb, with no registration, no file size limit, and no download limit or file life.
How often have you come across a situation where you have had to compress images or digital files or burn cds to send content to friends?
Swapper is a tool that lets users share photos, videos and files with family and friends that might normally be too large in file size to send via email or IM. Swapper allows users to privately share files by dragging and dropping them onto a Start button in the application. From there you select who the recipients are, and they will be instantly notified with an email and instructions how to get the files.
Through its easy to use and well designed interface swapper claims to be 100 times faster on photo and video transfers. It is available for XP and Vista users as Freeware.
We covered Tubes before - it's a free PC+web application designed to let you instantly share photos, music, video and documents with everyone you know and have them share their stuff with you through the same tube. It has online backup and automatic syncing capabilities, and is getting some great reviews.
If you are interested in trying Tubes out, you may want to get a leg on, as they will be cutting back data storage from the current 2 GB size to 1GB sometime soon.
Once again PC World publishes an article that is packed with tons of great freebies found all across the internet. We covered it last year, and the gang is back at it. From System Utilities, Communications, File Sharing, File Management, Productivity, Music, Photos, and Video its all here.
The 101 freebie list also includes a great People's Choice winners list that is an awesome place to check out what applications come highly rated by actual everyday users. Winners in this category include Ad-Aware SE, Google Gmail, Windows Live Messenger, Nullsoft Winamp, Google Desktop, YouTube and Picasa.
If you are in need of a free application, take a look here first to check out what the top rated ones are.
The RIAA warns it will go after college students with a renewed vigor, and indeed the organization has sent letters to hundreds of students at 13 U.S. universities in recent weeks demanding a steep financial settlement and warning students of coming federal lawsuits if settlements aren't addressed quickly and paid in full. The average cost of defending against an RIAA lawsuit ranges into the tens of thousands of dollars, even though evidence of any wrong-doing presented may be flimsy at best.
If you find yourself emailing large files frequently then you can save yourself tons of time with Tubes.
Tubes is a application designed to simply file sharing on the web that works similar to an IM program for your files. In order to share content with a friend or coworker you merely need to invite them to have access to your tube and drop the files you want to share in. Once you grant tube access to a particular person then an image of your Tube shows up on their desktop and files dropped from your desktop into the Tube are instantly be accessible to others who have Tube access.
This is awesome for those of that have work with others on projects and have to trade files constantly giving everyone an easy place to put the files where everyone else working on a project can have access to them. Tubes is a PC only application and can be downloaded for free from the Tube's website.
If profit isn't your motive, then swapping pirated music, movies and software via P2P isn't illegal. That's what a high court in Italy ruled last month, marking yet another blow for enforcement efforts by the recording, software and motion picture industry trade groups.
According to the Associated Press, "The court's decision [...] overturns earlier convictions against two former Turin Polytechnic Institute students who set up in 1994 a peer-to-peer, file-sharing network that was shut down within months." The students were each sentenced to one year in jail, which had already been reduced to 3 months upon appeal, a point which this ruling makes moot.
The ruling does not have any effect on the legality of violating the terms of copyright within the country, but does appear to decriminalize the act of file-sharing in and of itself.
Over the past two weeks, we've dished out a bucketload of invites to all the hottest Web 2.0 services and more, as part of our 
If profit isn't your motive, then swapping pirated music, movies and software via P2P isn't illegal. That's what a high court in Italy ruled last month, marking yet another blow for enforcement efforts by the recording, software and motion picture industry trade groups. 
