Interview With Lucas Gonze of Webjay

Richard MacManus writes "I've published an interview with Lucas Gonze, creator of the P2P music-sharing web app Webjay. Lucas was an early developer of peer-to-peer applications and back in 2000 he created a P2P start-up called World OS (the product was called Goa). In this interview we discuss World OS / Goa, how it compared to other P2P apps such as Gnutella, the 'Internet as Platform' concept, how Webjay works, some P2P History and Decentralization Theory, and ways around the legal hassles of P2P."

p2p is dying.

[zerdood]

P2P is becoming viewed more and more like warez. Whether or not there are thorny legal issues, it will still die. Joe User doesn't know his rights, he just listens to the propaganda.

Re:How in the world...

[Anonymous Coward]

On the other hand I dont see why the BitTorrent model with some very fast connection seeds (and some modification maybe for the seed upload algorithm to be fair to everybody regardless of their connection speed) hasnt gained more support for content distribution.

Re:How in the world...

[D+iz+a+n+k+Meister]

Many Earth Science types have been using the LDM [ucar.edu] for quite some time now. The LDM always struck me as the academic's BitTorrent.

Granted, the LDM is geared more towards providing data in "near real-time," as opposed to delivering static content. . .but you can download and upload from/to just about anybody else with the LDM.

Don't Steal Music

[SiliconEntity]

Gonze has a good perspective on piracy:

I don't believe there is a moral duty to stick to authorized music. I do believe that politeness is the only path to a political solution. If somebody wants me to stand on my head while listening to their music, I will either stand on my head or find other music. If somebody wants me to listen to their music, they will have to make it available under terms that I can accept.

Politeness is a winner tactic. It forces the crappy businessmen in the recording industry to stop hiding behind piracy. It makes the good guys smell serious. It's a dignified way of living. It helps musicians who respect listeners get popular at the expense of musicians who don't. The sole problem with politeness is that the technology and culture to filter up the best music libre is still immature.

In other words, don't steal music. Take music from people who give you permission to do so. It's common decency and politeness. Gonze's technology is supposed to help you find music like this which is just as good as the crap you've been stealing.

Sounds to me like it's worth a try.