OINK shut down

[Lysander]

There's two more invite-only private trackers that have opened up; I have memberships at both of them. Because: I am awesome. Really, though, it cracks me up that these worthless IRC nothings are just giving away invites to anyone that asks. Way to ask for a police infestation. Of course on teh other end of the scale you've got an equally worthless maggot on the forums saying "Hey you konoooow, all this invite-begging, man, it's getting really annoying 'cause we've decided not to let people in except for 2 minutes a day just to be assholes so y'know what fuck 'em, maaan, we odnt' *need* anymore people, 10,000's totally enough, fuck those worthless commie prolls who have the audacity to be more interested in real life than illegally downloading music over the intern--i mean uh sharing the groooove!" They're both blatantly ripping off each other, too, which is great--even the torrent content is the bloody same. Anyway, i'd invite you to one of them but htey require you to download and upload 5 GB (so that's 10 GB throughput) before they give you invites to hand out. And since this connectino has a6 GB bandwidth cap *that* aint happenin' for anytime soon. The other one i've got two invites for though but I know you people have this whole anti-ratio crusade thing going on so I won't bother asking Robb if he wants one.

[Jack Straw]

er, what?

[Vitriola]

er, what?

Commies suck.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

The other one i've got two invites for though but I know you people have this whole anti-ratio crusade thing going on so I won't bother asking Robb if he wants one.

I was going to write you an e-mail about this, but honestly, the last few days without Demonoid has opened my eyes.

I mean, yeah, I've paid a "piracy tax" in the past on blank discs, discs where I have been sending out one of my text adventures for free all over the globe. I've gone to concerts where, at the box office, I've been told that there is a "credit card fee" of four bucks for two tickets, which goes completely againt the terms and conditions of Visa and Mastercard.

I've purchased legitimate compact audio discs that have tried to put rootkits on my system.

I've given money for a corporation that has attempted to sponsor legislation that simply fuels their bottom line, and makes criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens (and corporations passing laws by worthless proxies in Washington is the top thing I absolutely fucking despise about this country.)

I've supported record stores like the House of Guitars that have essentially stolen money from me and tried to make me feel beneath contempt while doing so.

I've had my reasons for getting music for free. But no longer.

Shutting down Demonoid has opened my eyes. I'm discovering many more musicians than I otherwise would have. I went to the local record store - hah, well, local record store franchise - and purchased discs from a few bands that I was completely unfamiliar with. At $!7.99 plus tax, I then took them home and listened to them. Two or three good songs per disc, and now I am getting ready to sell these CDs on the second-hand market, where I'll get a return on investment of whatever $2 from $21 is.

It's a better way.

It's how they'd like us to do things. These record publishers - they're certainly not playing new acts on the radio stations they've purchased and turned into gray, samey goo. They want us to go in and purchased discs for the sheer fucking hell of it and frankly, I'm delighted to be a good citizen.

...

... Nah, actually, I've been coding my new game in silence, with just a lava lamp and occassional beeping Vectrex shining in an otherwise dark room. And it's been awesome. I think I'm growing out of needing music, and it's not all that terrible.