Wow! A lot of responses to read! Although I didn't read them all, there seem to be two basic positions: 1. Napster is good because it disseminates music and, despite the fact that artists and distributors are not paid, this stimulates interest in the music and probably leads to greater sales than if Napster did not exist. Therefore artists and distributors should embrace Napster. 2. Napster creates an environment where consumers don't pay artists and distributors for the music. Therefore, this may or may not lead to reduction or elimination of the artists desire to create. It may lead to this reduction since the artist is not being remunerated and, since this is capitalism, that is what we are all working for. Or it may not lead to this reduction because artists, as different from the rest of us, are compelled by their very nature to create whether they are remunerated or not. All of these arguments miss the point, in my opinion. Whether the nature of artists is or is not to create, as the author or performer of a song, book, play, computer program etc, you have certain rights of ownership as a result of your authorship. These include the right to sell some of those rights, to retain the rights, to share the work or to not share it. You are not under any obligation (moral or otherwise) to share it. There is no issue of the greater societal good here which says you must even share it, far less get paid for sharing it. This is the bottom line. As a computer software developer, I resent the idea that anyone could feel that they have the right to my work without first obtaining my permission. This resentment is apart from any money lost as a result. And any party who hides behind some argument that rather than stealing the property, he is just providing the vehicle for stealing the property, just would add the feeling that his arguments were ludicrous to that resentment.
Feelings on Napster?
Hi, Since this is in part a forum about music, I'll put this statement and question on the table. In the past few months, I've begun to use Napster online. I'll look through the forum for reccomendations on good albums and tracks, then I'll download it on Napster, take a listen and, if I like it, purchase the album. My opinion is that Napster is really opening up accessibility to music for alot of people, allowing them to try new things that before they wouldn't have access to or simply wouldn't be prepared to invest in. It's helped expand my own horizons I know and I think it's good for music overall. Any opinions?