| I am sure you have heard about the Napster | | | | adware robot plus another which was a Startup |
| Free Music Download website. From this | | | | Registry. These were indeed unpleasant and |
| website you could download whichever music | | | | unexpected. I was very trusting of the |
| you wanted for free. You cannot do that | | | | website, which turned out to be a terrible |
| anymore. Don't despair - there are other | | | | mistake of mine. It had all the correct |
| sites out there providing free music | | | | "looks" of a GNU open source website which I |
| downloads and one of these is called | | | | allowed to influence me. |
| Bearshare. | | | | |
| | | | This caught me totally unaware when my |
| The Bearshare peer-to-peer software | | | | system's protection stepped in to prevent a |
| applications promises the same as other | | | | possible dangerous event. I now feel that |
| programs produced out of the GNU/Gnutella | | | | Bearshare and possibly other peer-to-peer |
| stable. It offers the promise of free musical | | | | sharing software applications may have |
| downloads. It is a bit harder to get a "free | | | | "Trojans" and other nasties embedded. Using |
| download" of the basic Bearshare program than | | | | my "leftist" brain I found that I was |
| others, such as Limewire and Frostwire. It | | | | suspicious of the intentions of say the |
| promises a surprise you won't like or | | | | Record Industry Association of America. |
| appreciate; more details follow in a later | | | | |
| paragraph. Limewire was eventually obtained | | | | What if they were unsatisfied with the impact |
| from a freeware website on the internet and | | | | of their lawsuit against individuals and |
| Frostwire was acquired from the Limewire | | | | Napster; maybe setting up pseudo free |
| quite easily. | | | | websites with contaminated software |
| | | | applications, the purpose of which is to |
| But I am going to talk about Bearshare in | | | | scare people off from sharing files, |
| this article. This is my experience: When I | | | | software, audio, and video. I know what I'm |
| went to Bearshare they offered a membership | | | | writing is totally improvable; it sounds as |
| in addition to the basic Bearshare software. | | | | preposterous as claiming that sharing files |
| I downloaded the software and attempted to | | | | on the internet can harmfully reduce musical |
| install it. The following experience | | | | CD sales. |
| represents a danger still present upon the | | | | |
| internet and especially with peer-to-peer | | | | I wonder who would believe that? Anyway, |
| applications. | | | | there won't be any free music downloads using |
| | | | Bearshare to my computer. The surprises it |
| Upon installing the Bearshare basic software | | | | gave me outweigh any promise of no monthly |
| package my antivirus application went crazy! | | | | charges. |
| It identified two unwanted passengers, an | | | | |