File sharing application Grokster has ceased to be, at least in a sense of not being able to download it from their website anymore, although older versions will be circulating around the P2P networks for some time to come. And of course Grokster will be back as a legal music and movie download site in the near future, but whether anyone will use the system is anyone’s guess. As well as having to stop distributing their software, they have to pay damages of $50 million. This came about from a court ruling that said that companies that produce P2P filesharing applications are responsible for what their users do with their software. By that reckoning, if someone shoots another person with a gun, does that make the gun manufacturer responsible for what the customer did with their weapon? This could be interpreted in many different ways, the RIAA and MPAA hailed this as a landmark victory, but it will never stop filesharing, P2P will never be killed off as it’s a decentralised network, hence peer to peer. It won’t matter how many companies get shut down, it will always evolve and find new ways to evade anti-piracy measures, even if that means going into the open source community where there isn’t any company to speak of. The only other option is to sue individuals who can’t afford the extortionate fines for sharing a few 0s and 1s. This will only alienate the music loving community and record sales will suffer even further, but the big corporate companies can’t see past the dollar signs!
Speaking of corporate types, I despise them even more than ever after today; I had a word with my supervisor about staffing levels in the pot wash, and what came back is that it was asked if a member of staff in the pot wash could be made full time, and the answer came back from the work shy idiots upstairs that there isn’t a budget for another full time member of staff. They are just being petty as fuck now, all for the sake of £45 extra outlay per week, it would solve all the problems that we currently have, all the pot wash staff agree on this, but management don’t have a clue. What I suggested is that the store manager should spend a day in the pot wash when it’s busy, and then say that we don’t need an extra member of staff, but that’s never going to happen is it? As soon as I have a better job to go to, I am just not going to bother coming in and start the new job, just to get a little revenge for all the shit that I have taken over the last year. But for now I may well not be available to work extra hours and Sunday’s, and just work my 30 hours, they’ll soon find a difference!
But for now, I have just bought Red Dwarf series 7, with extended episodes, and comes on 3 DVDs so it’s a night in front of the TV for me, then tomorrow I have the day off, but it’s not all good, I need to have a serious tidy up, as I have a flat inspection on Thursday, so it needs to be reasonably clean and tidy, which it isn’t even remotely like at the moment!
