Of course, Napster is now not the only way to get MP3 files. Some other smart people, thought about napster, took the idea, and did their own things with it.
Also other projects are running to make it easy to exchange files. Some of them are even way more safe then Napster. But hey, MP3 files are illegal, so why would I even bother to get them ?
Of course, you know you are not allowed to download music you don't own, but there are cases, that can be said, and that make it legal to download MP3's, so it's your right ! What about if you own the CD, don't have a CD-ROM player to rip the CD and encode them to MP3, and you need to play the CD in the room with your PC, where you have no audio set. Then you can download the MP3's and listen to them at your PC.
Now we know, you don't do anything illegal, let's find some other ways to get your files.
One of the coolest is Gnutella. Downloading this app, will get you in the next generation of exchanging data, did Napster use a central server - that's easy to shut down - the Gnutella network consists of all clients connected to eachother.
Besides the small program (only 56k) you also will need a start ip address to get on the network, just add one of these: gnet2.ath.cx,
gnet3.ath.cx,
gnet4.ath.cx,
gnet5.ath.cx,
to the first Textbox you see in the program. And you are ready to go, if you need more help, go here If you would like to see, what's available on Gnutella, then visit this site and do a search.
Besides Gnutella, there is also another network that is more safe and can't be easily shut down, it's called FreeNet. It's still in development, and most people won't like it's cause it ain't very easy to setup and use.
Other software you might need, but these use centralized servers are:
CuteMX But they announced today that they will restriced public access to their service. Read more here
ScourExchange is still working and just like CuteMX, it's a good looking program, that also accepts other files then MP3.
These are probably the best known alternatives of Napster. BUT ! there could be another option, that will let you use Napster, altough you will use not the official Napster servers, but networks as Open Napster, MyNap or PhrozenNap. You can find these networks, by using the software called Napigator. This will download a list of available Napster servers, and allows you to connect your Napster client to those servers. Very nice, even the amount of Mp3's is given in GB's and the speed of the servers is also there.
For those who are not THAT into the internet, and who always used Napster, there is hope, just read the above, and you will find one of those the best way for you to get your music. It will be hard for 'them' to stop us !
