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[QUOTE]And to think, this discussion got here because of the simple concept of what is "lossless"!!

...well since I started this thread, I will respond...:

The reason one would "want lossless files?" is because one wants to preserve/archive/collect/listen to music WITHOUT LOSS. Why is that a strange idea? For a short time longer, we are fortunate to live in a SHARING community, before the laws are changed. Since this is bound to change, and technology is unquestionably going to change, now it the time to "share" content...and in the highest quality possible. Why would one want to waste their time sharing thousands of songs in a format (MP3) that will (or is already) obsolete, just so they can play it on their portable player...or save some hard disk space? For me, I would rather share/own/archive content in a format that will be worth saving...LOSSLESS. I do not understand why one would spent one's time on anything else?

Yes, one can get carried away...some of the SHN format groups seem a bit neurotic, but their goal is valid: LOSSLESS i.e. as good as original…again, why would one want less than that? Hard drive and CD-r is soo cheap!! What’s the issues? Quality is all that matters. Once you have that, you can copy to high compression formats to play on portable players, etc. However, the opposite is NOT true... if you start with "lossy" copy, you can never go back!!!

Are we talking about the cost of storage (CD-R= pennies, HD = $1.00/Gig) I assure you, this is nothing compared to what the studios have in store for all of us...PAY PER /VIEW/LISTEN.

Enough said. Anyone interested in sharing lossless (APE, SHN, WAV, Etc, or at least meaningful lossy, e.g. 320 MP3), please contact me...vze26nxy@verizon.net.

Thanks