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May 6, 2005
Dear CNET members,
We won! CNET.com has been named best consumer electronics Web site in the People's Voice Awards of the 2005 Webby Awards. We are all deeply honored by your support, and here is my note of appreciation to you all!
Now, let's tackle this week's question from Gretchen on how to safely and legally download files from a peer-to-peer network. Well, Gretchen while this week's winning answer by David T. specifically addresses your question on the legality and safety of downloading files from a peer-to-peer network, I will advise you that Kazaa and many other file-sharing utilities come loaded with bloatware, such as spyware or adware, that will directly affect your computer's performance or damage your computer. But don't take my word for it, take your community members' advice. If you read through the honorable mentions and additional advice from your peers, you'll see that many people will tell you the same. So, please keep that in mind as you make your decision. For all of you who'd like to chime in on this topic, please post your advice and opinion in this week's discussion. Thanks everyone, and have a great weekend!
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Member Question of the Week
I'm a new user of Kazaa and am looking for some guidance. Is there any reasonable way to know when I'm downloading a file that it's legal and safe for me to download? I'd love to get some good peer-to-peer stuff, but I don't want to break the law or accidentally download any viruses. Thanks.
Submitted by:
Gretchen G.
Since your question really has two parts: legality and security, I will answer them separately. Simply put, there is no easy way to know for sure that what you are downloading is legal. You would need some way to determine the owner of the copyright and confirm that they have made it available for download.
However, you can determine with reasonable certainty a good portion of that which is illegal to download...
Submitted by:
David T. of Atlanta, Georgia, USA
For
David's efforts, we're sending him his choice
efforts, we're sending them their choice of any
Help.com Learning CD.
Community Buzz
 Each week we take a look at topics discussed in the forums.
Best regards and enjoy!
Member jfpound is at an absolute loss. His mouse pointer moves in any direction when he is on the Internet other than the one he wants it to. He has done almost everything in the book to resolve the issue--reinstalled mouse drivers, run virus scans and malware scans, with no successful results. Do you have a solution to exorcise this possessed mouse? Please help him out.
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New computer air filters
Check out this new computer air filter that one of our members discovered. Along with this discovery, other members chime in with techniques they use to keep dust bunnies at bay. If you have unique ideas, tell us your methods. We are all listening.
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Fidelity of CD audio copies
Let's try to help member roopie settle a debate between him and his coworker. His coworker states that whenever you make a copy of an audio CD, the fidelity or sound quality when playing back the copied CD is never as good as the sound quality of the original. And roopie contends that digital audio is just binary code--ones and zeros--and that there is no difference between the original and the copied audio CD. Who is right, who is wrong? Weigh in on this debate.
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Mac nugget: Virus on my Mac?
Member kailax is having a serious issue with his PowerBook G4 Titanium. Every time he starts it and opens any program, it runs somewhat hesitantly and slowly for a short while, but it eventually freezes and gets a message that the computer needs to be restarted. He ran an antivirus app, and nothing seems to solve the problem. Any help from our Mac enthusiasts?
More from the Mac OS forum
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Check out next week's question:
We have a Dell Dimension 2400 P4 2.4GHz at home that runs slower than my old Gateway Pentium 500MHz. I upped the Dell memory to 768MB from 256MB and saw a marginal improvement. It also has XP Home SP2 on it. The other machine is never going to see Service Pack 2 after what we have experienced. Any guidance on speeding up the "new" 2.4-gigabyte monster that is turning out to be a giga-snail?
--Submitted by:
Mitch C.
If you have the answer,
e-mail us at messageboards@cnet.com.
If we choose your response, you'll get a
free Help.com CD.
Have a question?
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Is file-sharing programs' only purpose to illegally trade copyrighted materials?
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Last week's poll results
Do you think the security of Microsoft products is improving?
Have a poll you'd like to ask our members? E-mail me a suggestion.
Simple question, simple answer
Help your fellow members
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