> Napster finds MP3 files on people's computers which are shareable.
> Many of these files found by Napster are often unofficial copies of
> songs, not authorized by the artist or record company and the artists
> don't get royalties, so the whole issue is controversial.
Plus, if the files are found on a company's computers, there can be
serious legal problems for the company if they are ever discovered.
(And there are numerous means by which these can be found--everything
from computer repair people to disgruntled workers to somebody
naively re-publishing the illegal files from the company IP address.)
> If you are connecting from an office, your company probably has a
> firewall for many reasons. Firewalls protect PC's from viruses, intruders
> etc. Napster is often blocked by firewalls specifically due to the high
> volume of traffic the MP3 sharing generates.
Dropping a firewall is a horrible idea. Anyone who uses one and pays
attention sees frequent attacks. There's a lot of script-kiddies out
there that run through millions of IP addresses every day, probing
for various kinds of weaknesses. (I see an attack every 10 to 15
*hours.*) A well-maintained firewall usually keeps out all but the
most skilled and determined crackers.
