In Memoriam: 10 Cool Sites We Miss

Katherine Mangu-Ward | May 21, 2007

In honor of the Microsoft's lawsuit against Linux and the whole world's lawsuits against YouTube, mashable.com published a list of "10 Cool Sites We Miss." Some of the sites that perished in "Death by Lawyer," in addition to the obvious Napster, mp3.com, et. al.:

OLGA, or OnLine Guitar Archive, was one of those cool places on the Internet where you could find anything on a particular subject; in this case, guitar tablatures. But, I guess the sales from guitar tablatures were so big that copyright owners had to shut them down, too. Most of the guitar tablatures on the site were done by the users; but that obviously doesn’t matter much....

If the US were the only country in the world, p2p would probably be only a theoretical concept. Grokster, i2hub, WinMX, and everyone else within the grasp of US laws and regulations, went down, never to come back. Grokster’s current page gives you a nice overview with the current state of affairs on the Internet with this sentence:“YOUR IP ADDRESS IS xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx AND HAS BEEN LOGGED. Don’t think you can’t get caught. You are not anonymous.”...

Fonpods was a service that offered free podcast listening over the phone. For some reason, this allegedly cost the telecommunications industry “millions” (back then they didn’t yet invent billions and trillions, hence the modest numbers), so the service was shut down. Ok, we can understand why they went after Allfreecalls.net (which is, btw, online again) and FreeConferenceCall.com, but podcasts? Millions, they say.

This sad list of losses adds some heft the argument that Digital Millennium Copyright Act is primarily an anti-competitive "attempt by the entertainment industry to outsource the costs of their business model to the legal system."

Via Fark

Comments

|5.21.07 @ 12:27PM|#

sites that perished in "Death by Lawyer"

That should be "Death by Lawmaker." The system's never going to get better if your language continually leads people to believe that the root of the problem is lawyers, rather than the laws and the people who make them.

Marc|5.21.07 @ 12:52PM|#

OLGA is gone??? God damn it!

|5.21.07 @ 1:04PM|#

Death by Lawyer...
Death by Lawmaker...

What's the fucking difference?!?

|5.21.07 @ 1:16PM|#

A lot of the content at OLGA is still available at fretplay.com. Their library isn't quite as large as OLGA's but they still have a lot of material.

|5.21.07 @ 1:18PM|#

@Taktix
Alot--Lawmakers create the laws, so if you deem a law opressive, they're the ones creating the oppression, not the lawyers. In this case, Lawmakers created the laws that took down these sites, lawyers just did their job representing both sides of the ensuing case against the site.

|5.21.07 @ 1:25PM|#

Death by Lawyer...
Death by Lawmaker...

What's the fucking difference?!?

The fucking difference is this: Lawmakers (congresspeople and bureaucrats) made the laws that enabled the state to kill the sites being mourned here. By contrast, lawyers (hired by clients) simply made use of the laws that the lawmakers had already made. Complaining about lawyers is not going to improve the underlying laws.

Maybe what you mean is that most lawmakers are lawyers. That's true. They're also mostly rich white males. What you should be doing is pointing the finger at people doing the job of lawmakers, regardless of their training, class, sex, or race.

ed|5.21.07 @ 1:54PM|#

Lawmakers create the laws, so if you deem a law opressive, they're the ones creating the oppression, not the lawyers

And the lawmakers are elected by...
Anyone?
Don't be shy.

|5.21.07 @ 1:54PM|#

Reason #2591 to do away with copyright

The Wine Commonsewer|5.21.07 @ 1:56PM|#

JP, I understand the functional difference between lawmakers and lawyers in your example for this specific case. However, Death by Lawyer is a commonly used phrase that is intended to instill a certain visual effect upon the reader and I suspect that is why it was used by MS MW in this case, as a literary device as it were.

The Wine Commonsewer|5.21.07 @ 2:02PM|#

I am fine with IP and the existence of copyright. I am not fine with the convoluted nonsensical way in which these laws are written for the benefit of Disney et al.

Imagine if the laws pertaining to the ownership of your car were constructed exactly the same as DMC.

The Wine Commonsewer|5.21.07 @ 2:05PM|#

What would you call 534 federal legislators swimming to Hawaii with a lawyer under each arm?

A Good Fargin' Start

Ron Paul sat that one out.

|5.21.07 @ 2:40PM|#

Perhaps I should clarify...

What I was really trying to say was simply that most members of the Legislative Branch come from the legal profession.

Thanks, everybody for pointing out the difference between lawyers and legislators. You should have watched the sky, as my joke clearly flew right over you head...

ed|5.21.07 @ 2:45PM|#

You call that a joke?

|5.21.07 @ 2:56PM|#

And the lawmakers are elected by...
Anyone?
Don't be shy.

Uh, I was just trying to expalin the difference between the two professions in the context of the situation, not insulting lawmakers/laywers--jocular commentary isn't really necessary.
And I'm seventeen, so lawmakers aren't elected by me yet. I'll see how much damage I can do next year, though.

|5.21.07 @ 3:27PM|#

jocular commentary isn't really necessary

So just because a joke may not be necessary, I shouldn't be posting one?

You're probably still a virgin, huh? (now ad hominem attacks, THAT'S inappropriate!)

|5.21.07 @ 3:44PM|#

Taktix -- Sorry I missed your joke. I didn't see you smiling when you said it.

My real concern is that saying "blame the damn lawyers" is diversionary. It's like blaming the bankers, the financiers, the middlemen, the speculators, the landlords, and other bogeymen of centuries past.

|5.21.07 @ 9:22PM|#

jp, those are all well-known code words for "jew"
just come out and say what you really mean

The Wine Commonsewer|5.22.07 @ 1:40AM|#

I liked WinMX because I was tired of buying the same music every time technology changed.

Records. Then records recorded to reel-to-reel and put away. Then 8 track. Then cassette. Then CD. Then MP3. Screw those guys. I'm done paying for the same music twenty five times.

|5.22.07 @ 9:19AM|#

And the lawmakers are elected by...
Anyone?

Basically, yes, but I suppose that was your point.

I miss "House of Cosbys", a series of animated shorts shut down by The Cos himself.

|5.22.07 @ 12:47PM|#

jp, those are all well-known code words for "jew"
just come out and say what you really mean

I didn't say "teh Jews" because "teh Jews" was not what I really meant. What I meant was that the targets I listed have been used for centuries (depending on which ones you pick) as conscious and unconscious excuses for not learning about economics and political science.