If you haven’t heard of it before, it sounds like something painful that happens to a guy in his mid 40s, or a vital piece of plumbing under the sink, but Grokster is actually a file-sharing program, and it’s going pro. From its haven in the West Indies, the company has released a $20 version “in response to a growing user demand and willingness to pay for a version of the software that is void of annoying pop-up ads and the cluster of optional software programs that accompany all of the major P2P software clients on the market today.” (In English that means the free version that everyone uses now comes with lots of pesky ads and snooping software to annoy you while you download pirated music illegally.)
Grokster last April won a suit brought against it by the RIAA and the MPAAand has, it says, “since secured its position as one of the world’s most popular software programs and has established a brand name known around the globe, boasting users in every country on earth.” I don’t want to get into the ethics and legality of MP3 swapping, but it strikes me that if folk are exchanging music for free online, they’re not likely to be the kind of folk to want to shell out $20 for software. And if they are, they can hardly plead poverty for their piracy, can they? Or am I missing something?