A little whisper in the dark

Seven-point-Oh

By now, about 80% of the people on my MSN list has upgraded their MSN Messenger to the latest 7.0 version for various reasons: a hard disk format, patching up in order to play with the new icons and smileys that make instant messaging fun, well the list goes on. Those were the good things.

It didn't take me long to realize that MSN now automatically blocks most forms of sound file from being transmitted through it, .wav, .mp3, .wma and such. Seven-point-oh calls it potentially dangerous.

Yeah, right. There's ways around it though. But that's not my point. Its not politically correct to support or encourage piracy these days, so I won't.

What's more important is the "What am I listening to" feature that more than a few of us are using - it sure isn't a passive thing, it gets broadcast right across the internet to your friends and God-knows-who-else. And just how many legal MP3s are floating around your own computer anyway?

The conspiracy theorist in me would say that someone or some computer out there is quietly collecting the list of songs you're happily broadcasting just so your friends know you're listening to the cool songs. No one has to dig into your computer to find the incriminating data; you're advertising the fact. Not all of you have to be caught, just a few is enough to warn the many, so much so that there are no longer MP3 serving channels in Singaporean internet relay chat channels, and I personally know someone who had been taken to task by RIAA (this, dear friends, is an American agency that protects the media industry's copyright), just so you know the arm of the law is long enough.

Just be careful out there.

posted by Chung Leong @ 1:29 PM