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Grokster.com now a shill for RIAA/MPAA

GroksterIf you go to Grokster.com you're greeted by the familiar old Grokster logo, and something new: "The United States Supreme Court unanimously confirmed that using this service to trade copyrighted material is illegal." The message continues with the slightly disingenuous "There are legal services for downloading music and movies. This service is not one of them," and finally, a bizarre quasi-threat: "YOUR IP ADDRESS IS XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX AND HAS BEEN LOGGED. Don't think you can't get caught. You are not anonymous." The page also includes links to MPAA and RIAA projects RespectCopyrights.org and Music United. I'm not exactly sure who's in charge of the domain name now—I rather doubt it's Grokster, Ltd., despite the logo—or who they think they're going to impress, but I find it pretty laughable.

Filed under: Internet

2005's file-sharing winners and losers

RIAASlyck News has put together a list of their picks for the biggest winners and losers in file-sharing for 2005. File sharing's winners? BitTorrent, Apple, LimeWire, The Pirate Bay, and open source. The losers? Sony-BMG, Kazaa owners Sharman Networks, Grokster, pay P2P, and, of course, perennial loser the RIAA. I'd personally add to the winners list Fiona Apple, whose new album, which is being acclaimed as one of the year's best, would never have seen a release this year without the attention its P2P leak garnered.

Filed under: Internet

Mashboxx in talks for Grokster acquisition

Grokster logoThe Wall Street Journal is reporting that veteran P2P player (and loser of the recent Supreme Court battle with MGM) Grokster is in talks to be acquired by Mashboxx, the "legitimate" P2P network currently in private beta. Grokster, it seems, is hoping to go legitimate itself, and the terms of the deal would require Grokster to settle its current legal disputes with the recording industry. It's not clear whether an acquisition would lead to changes in Grokster's (or Mashboxx's) software but, says WSJ, "Mashboxx would likely share a portion of any future revenue Grokster generates with Grokster's current owners."

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Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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