John Klima on Thu, 25 Apr 2002 21:14:01 +0200 (CEST)


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[Nettime-bold] Re: RHIZOME_RAW: Really Viral Marketing



this is an intriguing idea, and i'm gonna play devil's advocate and not
reject the notion off hand.  you rightfully say that our machines are
our souls, but personally i own more than one (soul?).  if say, i made
one of my old (as in a year) clunkers just a net media machine, what do
i care if some spare cycles are used for a render farm, as long as my
tunes don't get interupted, this could actually be a really "sound"
idea. i have any number of old machines that are more than capable of
playing mp3's, if offering my spare cpu cycles, on a machine i only use
for media playback, solves the whole payment problem, i'm down with it.

j



"Christopher Fahey [askrom]" wrote:
> 
> This is a fascinating article about the new owner of Kazaa, Nikki
> Hemming, who has turned the notorious file-sharing application into what
> could be a very disturbing yet influential chapter in the history of
> file-sharing and, hence, copyright law. She's a daring businessperson,
> I'll give her that:
>   http://news.com.com/2100-1023-890197.html
> 
> She seems to be quietly gearing up her company for a long legal battle.
> She also seems to have a "get rich while you can" scheme just in case it
> all fails:
>   http://news.com.com/2100-1023-873181.html
> 
> This article says that when you install Kazaa you also install a little
> hidden app called "Altnet" that allows the app's maker (Brilliant
> Digital) to use your computer to do all kinds of stuff at any time, in
> theory without asking you. They claim they would never do it, but they
> acknowledge that they could. If you don't figure out how to uninstall it
> after installing Kazaa, the app just sits there on your machine like
> little secret back door. They could use your PC as a 'network farm' for
> complex 3D animation rendering. They could tell your machine to play you
> a slideshow of targeted ads. They could monitor your surfing activities.
> I think it is specifically designed to install other apps on your
> computer. They have not yet "turned it on", however.
> 
> This got me thinking that Kazaa probably got paid a lot of money to put
> this app into their installation package. Kazaa's biggest asset was
> their ability to sell (to business partners) space in the Kazaa
> installation package to third parties, a common practice among popular
> shareware apps. Unlike other businesses who do this, however, Brilliant
> Digital's product is able to, in turn, re-sell their newly-purchased
> hidden-installation channel to their own customers.
> 
> Both Kazaa and Brilliant offer their business partners/customers the
> opportunity to secretly "have their way" with the end user. What we get
> is a file sharing app, and in return they get the ability to market to
> us, use our CPU cycles, spy on us, or otherwise fuck us. Kazaa is a
> primary provider and Brilliant is a kind of "re-seller" of what might be
> called of "Pay Up The Ass" (or as they say in Spanish, "PUTA") marketing
> channels.
> 
> This gets more complex when you remember (from the first article) that
> Brilliant was one of of Nikki Hemming's business associates even before
> she bought Kazaa.
> 
> It is my theory that these people have come up with what might be an
> early prototype for the answer to the RIAA's prayers: turn the
> predominant distribution channel for online file sharing into something
> that has a way to extract some kind of payment from the end users, even
> if it's not money. In other words, make people pay for music by
> controlling the most popular way of getting to the music. PUTA may be
> the currency that we, as consumers, use to 'purchase' media when it is
> possible to get it for free - we use our souls instead of our money to
> buy digital media. By redefining the word "free" and by gaining control
> over the predominant distribution channels in file sharing, somebody
> (Kazaa? RIAA?) might achieve the goal of actually making people "pay"
> for what would be traditionally "pirated" content.
> 
> We put our personal time and the resources of our own computers (which
> are in 2002 effectively extensions of our own bodies, symbiotically
> indespensible) up as payment for media. Kazaa and Brilliant are selling
> us media which essentially comes with a built-in virus, and we accept it
> just like we've always accepted advertising on everything else we own
> and use. It's a brave new world.
> 
> It may well be doomed to fail, however, since somebody is always going
> to figure out a way to piggyback onto the Kazaa network and pirate the
> files, anyway.
> 
> -Cf
> 
> [christopher eli fahey]
> art: http://www.graphpaper.com
> sci: http://www.askrom.com
> biz: http://www.behaviordesign.com
> 
> + "soon, i will rise from the dead" viewerat
> -> Rhizome.org
> -> post: list@rhizome.org
> -> questions: info@rhizome.org
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> +
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