It seems that the future of Napster, Inc and other so called “sharing” facilities will be decided by the courts. (After all, this is America).
Should Napster be forced to fold up their tents?
Finally, something I feel really strongly about.
One political cartoonist put it thusly (I’m paraphrasing a bit here): “So, how exactly has Napster hurt Metallica’s 8-track tape sales?” Couldn’t have said it any better myself. This is worth repeating: In a civil suit…which a copyright infringement is…it’s not enough to just cite the law; the plaintiff has to pony up proof of an actual tort. No harm, no foul.
This whole joke trial is just sickening. No one is making a penny off these “pirated” songs. If you take the ludicrous pretzel logic presented by the plaintiffs, borrowing a friend’s CD for the weekend constitues “piracy”. Or playing it over a mall’s sound system. Heck, singing the songs would probably qualify. And no one with a quarter of a brain believes that Napster is going to drive the music stores out of business (Tower and Sam Goodys seem to be doing find where I live); if anything, they’re helping sales by convincing listeners to buy the albums…this has been very well chronicled.
If the courts enforce this outrageously liberal (you heard me!) interpretation of copyright law, the ONLY ones who will benefit in the slightest are the powerful recording companies (who charge too damn much anyway) and whoever’s under their collective belts. And I guarantee that record sales will not increase in the slightest.
Jeezus…Blockbuster Video can’t make backup copies of the instructions for their games because of copyrights, and now this. Copyright law has gone absolutely berserk in recent times. Thankfully, there are at least a few lawmakers taking a stand against this madness. I’ve given them my full support and I encourage everyone here to do the same.
I am hereby officially resigning from this thread…you don’t even get two weeks notice. Hell, I don’t think I even work here. Where am I? Who are you people? Leave me alone!
::wanders off aimlessly::
Not completely on topic, but similar. An indy artist released his entire album via mp3 and vinyl at the same time.
Here is the article
There’s a really interesting article about Napster in today’s Wall Street Journal - That’s Wed the 26th. In it they discuss how the 19 year old kid who originally programmed it owns less than 10% of the company stock, as well as having no power or representation on their board. It also reports Napster as being entirely unwilling to let anyone program compatible software with their own, or even reverse engineer the program. Furthermore, it states that Napster has sued several people for using their logo - something that I feel that a true anti-copyright infringement company would NOT do. I love my MP3s and I love not paying a dime for music. I do it and I tell everyone I can about it. But I’m not really sure that all about support of Napster is warranted when they’re just more suits like the record labels who will begin to extort us as soon as they legally can. They’re already talking about the possibility of monthly subscriptions to get access to the music or something of that nature. Enjoy a free thing while it lasts.
Peter Wiggen
Even as I type, I’m downloading some songs.
I WILL have a complete CD of nothing but Sifl and Olly mp3s before Napster shuts down!
<puts on eyepatch and bandanna>
R!
(flees)
The RIAA bought the judge. That’s all I’m going to say.
You are going to commit an intentional, vicious, reprehensible evil (and possibly actionable) act of libel, but that’s all you’re going to say, huh?
Apologize.
It doesnt matter if matter if napster loses or not. Now that its in peoples heads, music will allways be free on the internet. When/if they close down napster permanatly, 4 more will pop up just like it. Allready there is a new thing called gnutella. There are no central servers, so there is no one to sue. They (RIAA,etc.) can sue individuals…but come on, are they going to sue 30 million people for downloading “Kill 'em All”. Sure gnutella sucks right now (i was pulling a .01k on a cable modem) but it will get better. So, dont worry about napster leaving us.
Once again, US authorities are responding to guerilla tactics with technocratic force. They are not equipped to fight small battles so it is necessary for them to devastate the entire area. In order to save it, of course. :rolleyes: I mean it. You can draw real parallels between this débâcle and the standard modern US means of engagement.
Whatever. They’ll crush all the flowers, but they still won’t stop spring.
If Napster does go, at least it will stop my ISP from choking every day when the kids get home from school. I hope.
… until they find out about gnutella. Or Scour. Or Napigator.
After thinking about the subject on the walk home today, I have decided that I’m not totally on Napster’s side.
It doesn’t bother me that the record companies don’t make any money off the transaction when I download or upload a song. I firmly believe that the music industry has netted more from me since I started using Napster than before–not because I buy more music, but because I buy more new music. If I’m not sure whether or not I’ll like a CD, I will most often wait until I can find it used. If I can download a few tracks from Napster and listen to them first, I am less hesitant about plunking down $13.99 at my local independent music retailer.
So it doesn’t bother me that the music business is not making money from file sharing. It does, however, bother me that Napster is making money from it.
Of course, they’re not directly making money from it now, but they obviously plan to do so in the future, either from ads or a user fee or however they would do it. The fact that it is presently free and without ads has given them an air of altruism that I don’t think they deserve.
I am much more supportive of the free programs that do the same thing. I have never tried Gnutella and the like, but after thinking about it this way I will most certainly try them out.
Dr. J