The Ares P2P filesharing software has been around for a relatively long time. First developed in 2002 and operating on the Gnutella network, Ares soon picked up enough momentum to start using its network and was able to utilize a fairly unique leaves and supernodes architecture making its network traffic more difficult to identify than traditional P2P traffic. A consequence of its traffic traveling ‘under the radar’ was that it was – as of version 1.9.0 – able to work effectively even when two peers were behind a firewall.

Ares was for a while one of the few ‘clean’ filesharing networks that had resisted infiltration by groups such as Media Defender and BayTSP which, working on behalf of long time filesharing opponents RIAA, attempted to tempt eager downloaders with fake MP3 files. Since late 2006 these groups have been thought to have been operating on Ares.

NASA’s latest super powered rocket – capable of taking some 130 tons of spaceship and human payload into low earth orbit and 65 tons on to its final destination – has also been named Ares. Ares V will work in conjunction with Ares I (the crew vehicle) to form the cargo launch component of ‘Project Constellation’. The Project aims to return to the Moon in 2019.

Both these pieces of relatively recent technology take their name from the Greek God Ares which seems a strange choice of name for anything other than a massively vicious weapon of mass destruction. Why? Because even by Ancient Greek standards Ares was a fairly nasty piece of work: despite being the son of Uber-god Zeus he was almost universally distrusted by his peers. It turns out that his ultra-violent, sadistic nature was seen as representing the ‘bad’ side of war. This god of war did not represent nor bless honorable combat between evenly-matched opponents, he represented the bloodlust, slaughter, terror, fear and the misery of war.

There doesn’t seem an obvious parallel between this sadistic warmonger and the two leading pieces of technology in their field, but there doesn’t need to be for this to be a great name, a name which lends a deserved majesty in all its incarnations. Long live Ares, in all its forms!

Nokia’s new ‘Comes With Music’ campaign was launched by the mobile phone giant in 2007. What this meant was music downloads from Universal. Now Nokia has mixed up the deal a little and the unlimited music downloads deal includes Sony BMG’s wares, too. This is another step forwards by Nokia and a welcome breath of fresh air as one of the big boys comes closer to realizing everyone’s dream of music downloads all the time.

The beauty of Nokia’s deal is that the unlimited music downloads are genuinely free and have no DRM to render the music unplayable if you ever deign to cancel your contract with them. The music is yours to keep. This has got to give Nokia an edge on Apple’s iPhone – users of which are still very much paying for downloads – and a welcome boost; Nokia may have some catching up to do but this move represents steps in the right direction.

While Sony BMG has been very vocal in the legalities of filesharing, the music giant may have slipped up in another area. PointDev has come out accused Sony of using pirated software. PointDev caught Sony out when it found a pirated product key. Then, to make matters worse, Business Software Alliance carried out a raid and found that 47% of Sony’s software is pirated.

Business Software Alliance is now suing Sony for about $500,000. So much for taking the moral high ground when it comes to copyright. Sony has been at it for years.

It makes you wonder how Sony can be so staunchly against filesharing when its own operations break copyright laws on a daily basis. In 2005, Sony was accused of distributing discs containing spyware. Hypocrisy and irony are two words that spring to mind. Next time you have doubts as to whether or not you should be filesharing, look to the pillars of the community for inspiration.

Thanks, Sony.

The RIAA’s heavy-headed approach to suing students accused of filesharing is once again under scrutiny. Three recent court cases have thrown the “making available” argument under the spotlight.

The “making legal” argument has been one of the main weapons used by the RIAA in its clampdown on students accused of filesharing on campus. These recent cases have asked whether or not it is enough that students made tracks available for filesharing and whether the RIAA must prove that tracks were copied and downloaded onto computers.

Don’t hold your breath, because filesharing legend Jammie Thomas still ended up being convicted despite the same issues being raised.

The three court cases each came to slightly different conclusion, leaving the door open for more revisions to come in the future.

If the RIAA were forced to prove that tracks were downloaded and copied, then the ball games changes completely and we may start to see some changes in the way students are sued left, right and center.

More interesting news about those Swedish artists who were surveyed recently. Not only do 38% of them want filesharing to be legalized, but, get this, 59% of them admitted to using filesharing programs in the past to get free music downloads.

It’s not only us regular folks who get music downloads with Limewire, Ares and so on. Musicians, who you would have expected to be dead set against filesharing, actually use the technology to download MP3s.

Where does this leave the rest of us? Could musicians be prosecuted and sued for downloading their own songs or their friends’ songs? It’s a difficult situation to work out.

What would be really interesting would be a survey of American artists. Then perhaps the RIAA would start to see things differently. If those artists whom the RIAA is trying to protect actually use filesharing programs, what does this mean for the music industry as a whole?

I tried to read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich some eighteen months ago. I got about three chapters in before disinterest kicked in and I set it to one side. My mistake. I recently got chance to revisit the book and read it from cover to cover in under two days. Think and Grow Rich has had a profound affect on many people wanting to start their own businesses and it is very easy to see why.

What made me revisit Think and Grow Rich? Sex. One evening a group of us went to dinner at an excellent seafood restaurant and the conversation (and wine) was flowing. I started picking up bits of conversation to my left and my ears really pricked up when I heard the word “sex”. What was going on? A saucy conversation at this most proper of restaurants? No. It was a full-bloodied discussion of Think and Grow Rich. Chapter 10 – as I now know – deals with “The Mystery of Sex Transmutation: The Tenth Step Towards Riches”. I found this difficult to believe and so I ran home to check through my copy. And there it was. Sex is the secret to many riches.

The computer is such an integral part of almost any home business these days that it beggars belief to hear of people trying to do without or trying to ‘make do’ with an inferior piece of equipment. While it is clear that many a home business, especially when first starting, is under the cosh of a very limited budget, this is no excuse for not starting out right. Good computers are available for a few hundred dollars and this expenditure should be weighed against the almost instant increase in productivity that will be enjoyed for the benefit of your home business.

Likewise a telephone. While it may seem like an unnecessary expense, just losing one potential client due to miscommunication resulting from a poor phone is completely unacceptable. A hundred dollars or so is not a lot in the grand scheme of things and if you don’t lose that client then it has paid for itself very quickly. Investing in your home business is an important and crucial thing to do.