Audacity Forum

"These date from 2002 (!), and I think they come from the folks who like to record live shows by musical performers, then produce and distribute recordings without the assistance of the artists or their record companies. (Back in my day, we called these "b00tleggers") The good news is, these people are actually advancing the state of the art, and requiring high-quality lossless recordings. Check out The Trader's Den."

you seem to imply less than honorable intent by all folks who trade live performance music (i've had an account at Traders Den since 2008). There are a large number of folks, such as myself, who do not participate in the trading of copyrighted material and only trade live performances from artists who expressly allow such activities. in fact, this practice is encouraged by some artists. Part of the culture of this group forbids the selling or profiting from this activity....as it should be. There are also artists who forbid this activity ( Peter Rowan, Jorma, etc )and generally those wishes are honored - again, as they should be. There are torrent trackers where these rules are law and are honorable (dimeadozen, lossless legs) and others who could care less (pirates bay). this is an area where the bad actions of some diminish the reputation of all. Don't use such a broad brush when painting music traders.

let me add this tidbit.....

in the past when preparing a torrent for sharing, i have taken samples from a .wav file and converted to mp3 to post along with the torrent for folks to judge the general quality of a recording - a tool to assist in their decision to downloiad/not download. when i listen to the mp3 side by side with the .wav segment, my ears can tell the difference. and, of course, comparing the wave forms side by side (in audacity, of course) my eyes can easily see the difference.