FurthurNet - 1.7.5

I've been using Furthur for about 3 years now and can say without reservation that this is the most useful and most-used application for me since the advent of OS X. With trade-friendly bands only, this is the one p2p music-trading application that is actually legal and ethical. It supports a wide variety of audio and video formats (yes video is supported, for video-trading-friendly bands). The list of "trade-friendly" bands might surprise you, check Furthur's list out at http://furthurnet.org/bandlist/

A vibrant and vital piece of Furthur is its community, a host of dedicated individuals who are ready to help out newcomers, resolve issues, and police the network's content to ensure that prohibited material doesn't compromise the integrity and legal status of the network. Interaction happens through the application's built-in chat client, and through Furthur's forum web pages. Numerous friendly folk are always around to answer questions and offer assistance.

This application just plain works, to put it simply. I have obtained hundreds of high-quality, legal concert recordings from Furthur, virtually hassle-free. So what if it's Java? It says what it does and does what it says. And, importantly, there is NO SPYWARE or advertising associated with it. This is about as "on the up and up" as you can get in this arena.

The only weakness that might possibly merit mention is the fact that when the logon server goes down the application will not launch, and that particular server has gone down for days at a time on more than one occasion. While these episodes are rare, server redundancy for this routine would be a welcome improvement. But, when everything's accomplished using volunteer equipment and time, it's hard to complain!

Furthur is, however, not for everyone. It is for people who respect the wishes of artists regarding the sharing of their live concert recordings. Those who wish to download or distribute material that is not explicitly trade-friendly should look elsewhere. Use of any part of Furthur to aid in such activities, including the chatroom, is strictly verboten.

More FREE and LEGAL music downloads than you can shake a stick at! What's not to love?