No one is innocent, but neither is anyone explicitly guilty. So much of the circular dialog here is about choosing a perceived side (pro-artist, anti-commerce) and assigning blame. I use this quote perhaps more often than I should, but, “When you make yourself out to be the victim, it is easy to feel righteous,” and that goes both ways, because you’re simultaneously vilifying someone else. If we’re going to prolong this ceaseless future-of-music debate, we must ensure it sticks to music culture, and reject the culture of victimization.

So while all these independent artists argue thievery, do you know who’s winning? Major labels. This week, of the top 100 tracks on Spotify, only 6% are on independent labels. Major labels have figured out that the game is about exposure and awareness, two things that they are actually quite good at. It’s not about royalty rates, thievery, or even quality of music.

Make good stuff, then make it easy for people to buy it. There’s your anti-piracy plan. So I have a lot of trouble with the idea that the federal government is directing resources toward an ultimately ineffective game of piracy whack-a-mole (with some unknown amount of collateral damage to law-abiding citizens), when we are not even sure that piracy is a problem.

‘In the moments immediately following the MegaUpload shutdown, global internet traffic dipped an astounding 2-3 percent. Unfortunately for the feds, that didn't last for long. According to an assessment recently published by DeepField Networks, file-trading volumes basically returned to 'normal' as rival services started picking up the slack. So, same volumes, less snappiness and cost-efficient delivery, at least in the short term. Or, maybe the long-term, depending on how over-the-top this anti-piracy enforcement campaign grows. But does that mean the shutdown was essentially useless? Outside of file-trading volumes and routing details, the 'ripple-effect' of policy changes and shutdowns is getting a lot of attention. Most recently, the shut-and-run list includes BitTorrent tracking giant BTjunkie, with others likely to follow.’

Reflecting on his newly self-released $5 internet-only special. ‘I learned that money can be a lot of things. It can be something that is hoarded, fought over, protected, stolen and withheld. Or it can be like an energy, fueled by the desire, will, creative interest, need to laugh, of large groups of people. And it can be shuffled and pushed around and pooled together to fuel a common interest, jokes about garbage, penises and parenthood.’

So you can, for instance, have two free accounts, with your personal one unaffected by how much is in the dedicated shared folder of the other one.

“plowshare is a command-line application designed for some of the most popular file-sharing websites. Using plowshare you will be able to download files (and for some modules also upload, list and delete) on UNIX-like operating systems:” E.g.: $ plowdown http://rapidshare.com/files/130403982/1989_-_Castellum_honesti.rar

"The most immediate revelation, of course, is that at some point next year revenues from gigs payable to artists will for the first time overtake revenues accrued by labels from sales of recorded music."

They use scripts and human verification to check the legality of Limewire transfers originating from college campuses.

Trent was an Oink user and regrets its disappearance. The Reznor-Williams collaboration, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust!, a mind-boggling fusion of genres," will be released for free on the internet. "Ghetto gothic?"

Is glad to see OiNK gone. Laments the conservatism and insularity of the community, made up, he says, of "supposed music fans who tricked themselves into believing [OiNK] could substitute for a sustainable approach to supporting music as art."

On the shaky relationship between music blogs and record companies.