Help me out with a survey on p2p networks?

[WuddaWaste]

Hi Everyone,

Sorry if this is considered spamming. I really don't mean to. I'm involved in a research project at the University of Utah where we're studying the discourse surrounding p2p networks, internet piracy, and (most specifically) the "interpretive repertoires" used to defend them. In either case, I'm gathering data for the project and thought that this would be a phenomenal place to get some opinions voiced. So, if you don't mind and have some extra time, here's the link:

http://free.7host06.com/comm3180/

Many thanks in advance. Also, I apologize for the ghetto-ness of the free server I'm using. My real server is having DNS issues at the moment.

Again, I thank you for everything.

Regards,
WuddaWaste

[cheapprick]

You would probably get a better response if you promised, right off the top, not to share identifying information with any other agency. It says it on the site, but you should have mentioned it here.

I also have reservations that this isn't hosted on the school's servers and that you list an aol email addy for contact.

Obviously, people are free to take part in whatever they choose, but you haven't inspired me with confidence.

Good luck to you.

[smokingbevel]

1. Do you feel that Peer-to-Peer sharing and networks (such as Kazaa, Morpheus, Napster, DC++, BitTorrent, eDonkey, SoulSeek, etc.) are ethical? Why or why not?
Networks, such as those listed, may be considered inanimate "tools" or "technologies" of particular users. Thus, it is the users which are embodied with such human traits as morality, not the Networks.
2. Under the presumptions that you view yourself as a moral person, do your experiences with downloading illegal music, movies, software, etc. conflict with this? How?
While I'm making presumptions, I presume that my morality is ranked, no less than, but no greater than, that of a high ranking corporate executive of a vastly profitable tobacco company.
Given that resources permit, after testing and previewing a product, and finding it measurably worth its set rate of exchange, I will no doubt purchase it.
Because a sole act of downloading content, may hardly be considered an "experience", and doesn't precisely allude to actual usage, I may reserve such heavy self moral judgements for stronger acts, such as use.
3. Under what conditions, if any, do you feel that downloading music, movies, software, etc. is justified?
Once again, it would appear that the question, and similar stances, are unnecessarily clouding certain issues. Acts of "downloading" my be viewed as lesser in circumstance than acts involving, trips to physical distribution locations and examination of available products. Neither acts directly refer to usage.
4. Why do you think that you or others download illegal media (i.e. money, defiance)? Please explain your answer.
The download of "illegal media", where the media contains instructions relevant to illegal activities, such as bomb or drug construction, might be used by authors who seek reference material for publications.
5. How is digital piracy different than stealing from a department store or an individual?
The answer is in the question. For some reason, one may be more loosely associated with visions of daring men on a ship, who wear eyepatches and wooden limbs, and cleverly pillage other "priviledged" vessels. Box office sales for "Pirates of the Caribbean" are a testament to the popularity of such references.
6. How do you think the penalties for downloading illegal media should differ from those currently in place for dealing with shoplifting?
One more time. Applying punishment based upon mere access or availability of media, is utterly absurd. While, I don't reside in Utah, I would find it hard to believe that, by venturing to the nearest grocery center, and examining a loaf of bread, I might receive a prison sentence. At no time, during my examination of the bread, should there be an implicit presumption that I will assault two cashiers and three bag boys with it. I may entertain the notion that, in America and Utah, I am to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
I want a "free" T-Shirt.
If you enjoy taking surveys, feel free to "unanonymize" your experience here.

[serrebi101]

Lol, I took it, there's a huge majority on the last question lol.

[WuddaWaste]

You're completely right about not looking official. And I should have granted my personal guarantee of anonymity on here, too. I do have legit reasons for all my apparent ambiguities, though...

First off, just some background on myself:
My name is Adam Noshiravan. I am a student at the University of Utah studying electrical engineering. If you go to utah.edu and look me up in the student directory, you will see that my email addres is, sadly, an AOL address.

Secondly, the reason that my site is not hosted on University servers is because of the ASP issue. The main server that I run on is a Windows box running IIS so ASP is its native server-side language. That went down about a week ago due to DNS issues (the computer I was being hosted on, as well as the nameservers of the domain got their IP addresses changed) and I got impatient waiting for them to come back up when the semester is nearing its end so quickly. Thus, I had to find a host that supports ASP.

The University of Utah servers only support some demented (and supposedly more secure) form of cgi scripting. After experimenting and fumbling around with this for about 3 hours, I finally gave up on the language and trying to develop anything on the Utah servers based on that.

For what it's worth, I can again prove that I am part of the University of Utah based on the fact that I have an old class website there. There is a link to an "About Me" page that re-identifies everything that I just told you above plus a couple other things that you probably didn't care about: http://home.utah.edu/~an15/wrtg3400/about_me.htm

Aside from that, if you check with the admins of this forum, you can see that the message I posted earlier today was from a University of Utah IP address. The one I'm posting now is going to be from an AOL address since I just got home.

Anyway, thanks for pointing that out. Again, I really do promise/guarantee your anonymity in this survey. If any of you want to see the actual asp code that I wrote to gather this data to ensure that it's not collecting anything other than what I promised, I'll have no problems sending that to you.

Thanks again. I gotta go some reading.

Regards,
WuddaWaste aka Adam Noshiravan

[WuddaWaste]

Oh! Many thanks to smokingbevel for that great idea. If you guys don't trust my scripting, feel free to reply on this board and I'll copy/paste it myself later. Though, as it would seem, posting it here would give more identifying information as to who wrote what....

I guess that explains the "unanonymize" term. Hehe. Anyway, thanks again smokingbevel.

Also, if you want a "free" t-shirt, I've got a couple old ones lying around that you can have. They ain't new but hey... what do you expect?

[joey tribiani]

People if you look at the questions "They are loaded" so as to assume your an "Pirate" or "Thief" This sounds like some "RIAA" Survey(or "DRM") from an outsourced Company. WATCH OUT!

[IshareManyFilez]

I took it but posted nothing valuable. Just cursed at these trolls.

[WuddaWaste]

Thanks for the all-caps flaming. I at least thought it was funny.

Anyway, yes the questions are "loaded" to have a slant towards pirates. This is because we're essentially studying the language that is defending internet piracy. It's a concept called "interpretive repertoires" which, in turn, is part of a larger deal called "Social Constructionism". The idea is that you use your language to socially position and re-position yourself in different roles.

As an example that was given in class on "interpretive repertoires"...
People who cheat on academic tests, papers, projects, etc. are labeled instantly as "cheaters" with all the bad ideas that are associated with it. But with a simple justification of "I only cheated on this one test in this one class because I knew that I'd never have to use it again in the field of study I'm pursuing...." it repositions the person from "cheater" to something more like a "time-efficient, pragmatic realist."

I know this sounds vague at best. Keep in mind that we've been going through an entire semester of this in an upper-division class, and have likely read over 400 pages or so pertaining to social constructionism. I can't sum it all up in a single bbs post.

Just keep in mind when looking over the questions that the research we are doing is in NO WAY related to the legalities or ethics of p2p downloading. We're merely studying the language commonly used to defend it.

[begoodbebad]

Internet Piracy Survey
This survey is part of a small research study being conducted at the University of Utah. All answers given will be kept strictly anonymous and used only for this research. All fields are optional, but more detailed answers are immensely more helpful.
Thank you for your time and participation in our study!


1. Do you feel that Peer-to-Peer sharing and networks (such as Kazaa, Morpheus, Napster, DC++, BitTorrent, eDonkey, SoulSeek, etc.) are ethical? Why or why not?

Badly considered question. Ethically a network is entirely neutral in the same way as is the post office, radio transmitters, a pen and paper. It's just a medium for the movement of data, which can be anything at all.

2. Under the presumptions that you view yourself as a moral person, do your experiences with downloading illegal music, movies, software, etc. conflict with this? How?

There is no such thing as "illegal music". It is the distribution and/or use of the media that may be deemed legal or otherwise.

3. Under what conditions, if any, do you feel that downloading music, movies, software, etc. is justified?

What I would have to justify is spending hard earned cash on something that is freely available.

4. Why do you think that you or others download illegal media (i.e. money, defiance)? Please explain your answer.

Again the media are generally not illegal(though some software and images may fall into this category, i.e certain kinds of pornography and software which breaks digital encryption for example), it is their distribution and use that may be questioned. I download music because I like to listen to music. I download movies because I like to watch movies. I download software to use it to perform tasks with my PC.

5. How is digital piracy different than stealing from a department store or an individual?

What do you mean by piracy? Do you mean media companies employees and agents illegaly distributing content pre release? Do you mean selling counterfeited CDs,DVDs? Do you mean cracking activation procedures and making keygens? Do you mean offering media for free upload via p2p? Do you mean downloading copyrighted media? Do you mean ripping your own CDs so you can play them on your PC or Mac or mp3 player? You seem to have a very poor understanding of these very different activities which are not performed by the same groups of people who would all be very differently motivated. For example counterfeiting ties in with money laundering, organised crime and all that entails. It has little relevance to some kid downloading mp3s.

6. How do you think the penalties for downloading illegal media should differ from those currently in place for dealing with shoplifting?

There shouldn't be any penalties for downloading any media unless possession of this media is in itself an offence, i.e child porn, extreme racist content, terrorist tools etc.




Thank you for helping us with our research project! yeah right.

Questions? Problems? Contact [email protected] .

[GnutellaSearcher]

Hey WuddaWaste,

How's the weather in SLC? Did they finish the TRAX light-rail line that goes up the hill past Eccles Stadium? Are there any new rail lines built in the last two years, as well?

Love UU, just love it. Of the several universities I've been to, UU has the best library, the best CS and computer labs, the best linguistics and foreign language resources, and the friendliest student stock.

I would answer your survey, but the bulk of the questions presume evil about the use of P2P. One thing I learned in the study of law is that questions loaded with presumptions should not be answered at all, showing forth the accusative mindset of the one asking, even if it is just for a "study."

It also seems that your social construction model and study presuppose moral relatavism from the foundation of "might makes right" and "media-government propaganda is the truth." If there was simply a presupposition in your study that truth is independent of what the government and people with guns say is true, then I would be more tempted to answer your survey in detail.

1. Do you feel that Peer-to-Peer sharing and networks (such as Kazaa, Morpheus, Napster, DC++, BitTorrent, eDonkey, SoulSeek, etc.) are ethical? Why or why not?

What is meant by "feel?" Believe? Think? Fondle? Can one fondle a P2P network?

2. Under the presumptions that you view yourself as a moral person, do your experiences with downloading illegal music, movies, software, etc. conflict with this? How?

What is a presumption? What is a "moral person?" What is an "experience?" What is "illegal music, movies, software, etc.?"

3. Under what conditions, if any, do you feel that downloading music, movies, software, etc. is justified?

What is meant by "justified" or "justification?"

4. Why do you think that you or others download illegal media (i.e. money, defiance)? Please explain your answer.

Who is downloading illegal media? Have you personally witnessed this? What is "illegal media?"

5. How is digital piracy different than stealing from a department store or an individual?

What is "digital piracy?" What is meant by "stealing?" Does the question presuppose that downloading a file from the Internet constitutes "stealing?"

6. How do you think the penalties for downloading illegal media should differ from those currently in place for dealing with shoplifting?

What penalties? What are penalties? What is meant by "dealing with?" Who is "dealing with" what?

It appears the survey questions attempt to use too broad a brush to paint a picture. The result is to classify anyone who uses the Internet to find information as a "criminal," presumed guilty of "piracy" and getting "illegal software," with the burden of proof on the accused. A good defense attorney would object to all these questions and have them stricken from the record if a prosecutor asked a witness or defendant said questions.

I hope you see what I mean by the declaration that your survey questions presuppose the "rightness" of moral relativism as defined by the whim of bureaucrats and corporate media czars. You will learn more from that simple realization than from a million answers to your survey.

GnutellaSearcher

[begoodbebad]

Hey WuddaWaste,

How's the weather in SLC? Did they finish the TRAX light-rail line that goes up the hill past Eccles Stadium? Are there any new rail lines built in the last two years, as well?

Love UU, just love it. Of the several universities I've been to, UU has the best library, the best CS and computer labs, the best linguistics and foreign language resources, and the friendliest student stock.

I would answer your survey, but the bulk of the questions presume evil about the use of P2P. One thing I learned in the study of law is that questions loaded with presumptions should not be answered at all, showing forth the accusative mindset of the one asking, even if it is just for a "study."

It also seems that your social construction model and study presuppose moral relatavism from the foundation of "might makes right" and "media-government propaganda is the truth." If there was simply a presupposition in your study that truth is independent of what the government and people with guns say is true, then I would be more tempted to answer your survey in detail.

1. Do you feel that Peer-to-Peer sharing and networks (such as Kazaa, Morpheus, Napster, DC++, BitTorrent, eDonkey, SoulSeek, etc.) are ethical? Why or why not?

What is meant by "feel?" Believe? Think? Fondle? Can one fondle a P2P network?

2. Under the presumptions that you view yourself as a moral person, do your experiences with downloading illegal music, movies, software, etc. conflict with this? How?

What is a presumption? What is a "moral person?" What is an "experience?" What is "illegal music, movies, software, etc.?"

3. Under what conditions, if any, do you feel that downloading music, movies, software, etc. is justified?

What is meant by "justified" or "justification?"

4. Why do you think that you or others download illegal media (i.e. money, defiance)? Please explain your answer.

Who is downloading illegal media? Have you personally witnessed this? What is "illegal media?"

5. How is digital piracy different than stealing from a department store or an individual?

What is "digital piracy?" What is meant by "stealing?" Does the question presuppose that downloading a file from the Internet constitutes "stealing?"

6. How do you think the penalties for downloading illegal media should differ from those currently in place for dealing with shoplifting?

What penalties? What are penalties? What is meant by "dealing with?" Who is "dealing with" what?

It appears the survey questions attempt to use too broad a brush to paint a picture. The result is to classify anyone who uses the Internet to find information as a "criminal," presumed guilty of "piracy" and getting "illegal software," with the burden of proof on the accused. A good defense attorney would object to all these questions and have them stricken from the record if a prosecutor asked a witness or defendant said questions.

I hope you see what I mean by the declaration that your survey questions presuppose the "rightness" of moral relativism as defined by the whim of bureaucrats and corporate media czars. You will learn more from that simple realization than from a million answers to your survey.

GnutellaSearcher
Do you also use AOL?

[Malicious Intent]

Trust a lawyer to answer a question with a question!

[GnutellaSearcher]

Trust a lawyer to answer a question with a question!

Who called me a lawyer? Did I say that I am a lawyer?

[WuddaWaste]

Hi guys,

Again, thanks to everyone for helping me out here. In response to just a few things....

The weather down here has been pretty normal to what's expected for April. Really nice-looking days so I go out in a t-shirt and shorts and then, when I get outta class, it's pouring like the second coming is approaching. I think I need to find a hooded, waterpoof t-shirt for this month.

I gotta agree that we do have an amazingly beautiful campus so far as scenery, trees, and all that jazz go. The shitty thing, in my lazyman opinion of couse, about our campus is that (because it's on a mountainside), they've seem to have layed ou the buildings so that no matter where you're going to/from, you go UPHILL BOTH WAYS.

I'm in the library right now, as a matter of fact. I gotta admit, though it's not much to see from the outside, the inside is humungous. I spent well over 2 hours as a freshman just wandering this place trying to get a feel for where things are. Impossible. This place is huge.

Again, I remind you guys that I'm not personally studying the ethics behind file sharing. I'm studying the language that's commonly used to defend it. So a bajillion people answering my question, regardless of how undereducated or whatever it may seem, will be awesome.

I do see that we've worded our quesitons poorly. A part of that was because our survey was geared towards the general public, not necessarily the particularly computer-savvy people. Hence the lack of distinction in 'what piracy is'. The other half of it, (i.e. ''illegal media'') is just somebody being boneheaded and all of us being too lazy to correct it.

Anyway, thanks again. You guys are being great.

[Malicious Intent]

Did I say I was talking about you?

;-) Two can play this game!