When I see artists against piracy because they are starving, I have nothing against it. Also, when I see artists against piracy because the law should be the same for all, I have nothing against it, but when movie studios are going against piracy, there's always some dark side of the story. After all, we're still talking about artists against piracy, but this time is the art of making money versus what some people consider freedom - the freedom to share information. Unfortunately, that information happens not be free to share, so here's a new episode in the everlasting "get the pirates" war...

This time, it's all coming from Europe, and not the US. To be more accurate, we're going to talk about the recent claims of a French antipiracy association. How did they get their conclusions? Well, they monitored P2P traffic...and if you ask me, this seems "a bit illegal," just like downloading and watching pirated movies. Anyway, I think we should check their claims first, so let's see what has to say The Association Against Audiovisual Piracy (ALPA)...

Before moving on, let me say that I think "Is LimeWire illegal?"(you can replace LimeWire with eMule, BitTorrent or another similar program, the meaning of the question remains the same) is a question not as important as "Is traffic monitoring illegal?" or "Do they have the right to monitor my traffic?" but...that's life. They can do whatever they want, democracy is just a mask, but let's leave those conspiracy theories aside and see those claims I mentioned earlier, shall we?

After analyzing P2P traffic in France between November, 2007 and June, 2008, monitoring 100 of the most popular French and foreign films, ALPA concluded that these movies accounted for as much as 90 percent of all P2P downloads, with a daily average of 450,000. According to them, some of the movies in their list were downloaded so many times, that this method of obtaining them could endanger the entire industry. Come on, "the entire industry"!?! Let's see how this could happen...

To take just one example, ALPA said the French film "Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis" was downloaded 9,800 times per day after its box office release in March, for a total of 682,000 downloads so far. <-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->
If we look at the box office tickets sold in France for the movie, that number is...a bit higher, with "only" 20 million! That would mean loses of less than 15%, if I think well, and since the movie didn't cost 15 million to make... figure it out for yourselves!

Despite the above, ALPA still thinks the industry is endangered: "We are facing a major phenomenon that can endanger the film industry and audiovisual industries. We did not expect such figures."

OK, so do these artists against piracy have any solution?(spying on people is an art, no matter what one would say!) Sure, hunt'em all, that's the solution! All of a sudden, "The piracy of films requires urgent measures." Really?

ALPA director Frederic Delacroix even has a plan, backed by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, requiring strict monitoring of networks by ISPs, leading to a complete loss of privacy for Internet users, as well as increased costs of the service. I am glad these "artists" from ALPA are not hanging around here, I really do!

Once this plan is being put into action, subscribers to an ISP who have been detected sharing or downloading copyrighted material will get warnings, then they will have their Internet connection cut. The ironic part is that, while the full report won't be made public until September, parts of it have been leaked already. So much for monitoring, security, and keeping data safe. I hope those guys at ALPA are feeling already a taste of their own medicine...

Just my five cents - let's gather a crowd of artists against piracy and ask them how far would they go to see everyone obey the copyright law! Piracy is just a stage in one's life, because sooner or later, they'll realize they're hurting things they love.

I have no idea about movie studios, but I can name a few applications I was proud to buy and that were discontinued because piracy. The one I regret most of not having bought before being discontinued, although I was amazed by the shareware version, is ArtGem. Take a look at it, and then think twice before downloading illegally a movie by your favorite director - it may be his last!

Despite its problems with censorship, the Chinese Web is opening itself to the world pretty fast, and since Baidu has the largest share of the Internet search market, there's plenty for Google to do in order to catch up. The interesting part is that a very strong part of Baidu is its music search capability, and that's exactly where Google tries to hit it now, since Google Music China is taking off as we speak...

Located at google.cn/music, the site is only accessible to Chinese Internet users, allowing them to search by song title and artist. Since Google is not selling any music, as far as I know, the search results are pointing to audio tracks hosted by Top100.cn, a Chinese music site financially backed up by Yao Ming.

So...why should Google do such a thing, if they aren't going to be the ones actually selling music? The answer is simple:ads. What about them? Obviously, their music site for China will be ad-supported, and the revenue will be shared with Top100 and its partners, as Google says.<-180x150 Small Rectangle - right->

As I see things now, the problem for Google will be that Baidu provides deep links to huge amounts of illegal music, but since now it's under heavy fire in a legal battle started because of copyright infringement, this may not keep standing for much long. After all, it may be possible for some of those links to be unavailable already, but since I have no knowledge of Chinese, I can't go surf around in Baidu and figure that out for myself...

Anyway, I am sure there's still a lot for Chinese users to find Baidu attractive, and the good part is that Google China doesn't believe in "killing" its competitor. "The Internet industry should by no means stand in the opposite camp against the music industry. Google always believes profoundly that mutual interest, rather than monopoly, is the key to sustainable growth," said Google China President Kai-fu Lee said in a statement to Reuters.

At last, if you have any information regarding this subject, please go ahead and give us a hand. Google China is a very interesting subject, and I am sure it must be more than meets the eye to it, but if I don't get any "inside info"(inside China, or at least someone familiar with the language), it's all just a scratch of the surface...

File sharing is one of my favorite topics, especially because of that (very) thin line between legal and illegal. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't enjoy having the authorities go through my files to see if what I downloaded is protected by some copyright or not, and that's why I like using file sharing programs and being up to date with the latest news in the field. I am not out for warez, but I know there's a lot of useful free content out there, waiting to be found.

Now, a very short file sharing history lesson... It all started with USENET, the first global file sharing network, followed by the first P2P-generation file sharing software, using the server-client approach. While Napster faced a lot of legal problems, went down and now is up again, using a pay system, LimeWire is probably the most notorious first generation file sharing program still having a free version. So... is LimeWire illegal, or not?

First of all, let's do this the easy way. Considering the number of habitable worlds in the Universe, it's simply impossible for intelligent life forms not to exist.<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->
Obviously, the fact that - as far as the public opinion knows - we didn't manage to encounter them yet, doesn't mean they don't exist. Now, if we take into account the fact that LimeWire for Windows has been downloaded from CNET, not to mention additional source, over 150 million times, figure it out for yourself!

Don't worry, I won't leave you hanging in the balance, but please write a comment with your own opinion, I'm anxious to hear more about what you think. As for myself, here's what I think - just like with most file sharing applications, it doesn't depend on the program too much. It's the user, obviously. Is LimeWire illegal? Hell, no! Is it possible to download illegal content with it? Obviously, yes. After all, instant messengers, email services, the entire Web itself could be used for illegal purposes, don't you agree?

When asking yourself "Is LimeWire illegal," simply replace "LimeWire" with virtually any other file sharing program, instant messenger with file sending capabilities, and so on. It's not the tool, it's the user of that tool, remember that!

If you're asking yourself about the differences between the LimeWire versions available, I must say none of them is "warez-friendly" more than the Basic version, if I can say that. After all, the "workflow" is this - you download the program from the official LimeWire downloads page or any other reliable source, and you fire it up.

Now, if you are looking for "Ubuntu Linux" or "Hancock," that's nothing illegal. When you find various results for "Hancock," some of them related to "Hancock trailer," and others being like "Hancock.2008.R5.LiNE.XviD.SWESUB-KickFoot," and you download the later, that's "a bit illegal." In fact, it's 100% illegal!

I hope I made things clear, but I am sure we'll get back to this topic in the future, too. After all, is LimeWire illegal? Is BitTorrent illegal? Is Azureus illegal? There are plenty of questions to answer, but if you think well, there's only one answer - "depends on what you make of it!"

If you're looking for some Windows cleaning tips, then you are in the right place. How is that possible, when I don't even know if you're looking for Windows cleaning tips, or cleaning tips for your house's windows? It's very simple - today we won't talk about Windows cleaning software, but about avoiding the need to clean your Windows. Strange, but true, some of these tips could be applied to your house's windows, as we're going to see right away...

Keep your desktop clean! Since the Windows desktop allows you to easily drop files and - obviously - forget to delete them, having over 30-40 items on your desktop can turn from "I can't do such a thing" to "Oh, my God!!" in only a few days, even hours. Regarding your house, just be sure to have grass in front of it - it's always better than dust...

Just as a side note, to keep everything organized, best choice is a file manager. Total Commander, Frigate, and Unreal Commander are only a few of the many choices available.<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->

Avoid installing junk! I have nothing against good games, useless programs, useful programs, or even worthless games, but I have something against those with 350 applications installed and only using 5 of them. Decide what's best for your needs, keep what you are currently using, remove the others. Oh...and no matter what you do, try avoiding IE toolbars as much as possible. Why? If you have at least 3-4 toolbars and you're wondering why is your computer so slow...you already have the answer!

Apart from keeping your desktop clean and everything in order, backup your data to DVDs on a regular basis! This way, you won't cry for the pictures taken in the last 3 years when your hard drive crashes!

Still in need of Windows cleaning tips? When the rain comes, be sure to wipe them clean! This way, you'll be able to save some water...:)

To be honest, I love keeping things clean, rather than cleaning them, and that's exactly what you should do with your computers. Windows cleaning tips may be good as an idea, but "tips for not having to clean Windows" are the best, and I think my short article helped you realize a few basic things a lot of people forget about. Good luck and...keep it clean!

Ever wondered about Windows XP SP3's fate? After it became officially available, it quickly disappeared in the shadows, and - if you ask me - I wasn't even curious about it. After all, my Windows XP SP2 runs perfectly, so why bother with SP3? Looking back, here's what we were saying about the topic in late April: "Microsoft announced that Windows XP SP3 has been released to manufacturing, and will arrive on the 29th of April, as a standalone installer. After that, SP3 will also become available as an automatic update, but that is expected to happen in June." So much for Microsoft's delays!

As far as I remember, June has ended over a month ago, and I didn't see any Automatic Update message popping up announcing me about Windows XP SP3. I am sure you didn't see anything, either. Finally, the wait is over - once again - and Windows XP SP3 is available as a "Recommended" update. If you didn't get it manually until now, and Windows Update is set to "automatically download recommended updates for my computer and install them," SP3 will crawl into your computer one of these days.<-180x150 Small Rectangle - right->

If you want to avoid SP3, as I will(don't ask me why, it should be obvious I don't trust it yet), and keep your current Windows Update settings, just grab the Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit, and all should be fine.

The summary of this last Windows XP service pack is this - the final build, labeled 5512, is known to include 1,073 fixes, including every security update, out-of-band release, and hotfix released since Windows XP SP2 became available on Microsoft's servers, in August 2004.

If you're running SP3 already, please drop your feedback below, I am really curious!