Feelings on Napster?

Possibly it's the latent anarchist streak in me, but I tend to rejoice at the potential for entrenched, corporate models which rule and dominate creative industries being fundamentally challenged from time to time. Reminds me of the movie industry crying and pleading to the heavens and anyone else who would listen that VCR's (as opposed to VCP's-which just play tapes) would mean the certain death of the industry and that they absolutely, positively had to be banned if anyone ever wanted to watch a new movie again. They were serious, too. Models change. I have no doubt that the creative spirit and music will survive. The corporate model which feeds off of this creative spirit, however, is now confronted with a new paying field. It too, will survive, but it will look different. I am confident that Napster will be effectively crushed, at least in the short term. The laws (and those who enforce them) are created by vested interests to protect those interests, and new technologies are usually effectively stifled by an essentially conservative market and those who they threaten. (For example, cable was stifled by the broadcast industry for more than a decade with end-of-the-world style cries of hellfire and brimstone, just as cable is now stifling satellite broadcasting, deliciously, using precisely the same arguments which broadcast had turned against it. The same thing is going on with internet telephony, which scares the pants off of the telcom industry, and directly dovetails with the alleged digital conversion and the potential for multicasting v. the high definition programming which the industry promised Congress). I digress. That said, the genie is out of the bottle - no turning back. Sure, the industry will manage to suppress the development and full potential of all of these new technologies for a while by forcing them to play by outdated rules and cramming them into boxes designed in a different era. It has been ever thus. In the long run, however, we’re in for some changes. What? No idea. Creativity will survive. Music will survive. The rest (the playing filed, the rules, and even the players, not to mention whose pocket is getting lined) is just a curiosity to the likes of me. Hell, and if the upheaval only means a period of uncertainty, which can only then breed more creativity, I say bring it on. Us listeners / consumers, whatever our stripe, only benefit. I’ve never once used Napster, nor do I ever intend to, but I love it. (Sure, mea culpa, I've conveniently glossed the genuinely thorny issue of property rights in the digital domain--which is terrifyingly important on countless level and utterly without any apparent solution--I just don't want the folks at Sony music to have any hand in coming up with the new paradigm, or, for that matter, perpetuating the old one...).

Let's get a couple of things straight.

• None of the arguments about "fair use" are on point because sharing an MP3 with thousands of people is NOT the same as sharing a single cassette in a parking lot (to counter Napster's silly argument). One cassette can change hands, but it's the same cassette. One MP3 can be downloaded jillions of times to jillions of people.
• No one can say that it's not theft. The music doesn't belong to you and no one gave you permission to have it for free. This is commerce, people.
• You are rationializing your theft to say that the music industry charges too much so you're entitled to steal from them.

Now, that being said:

I do not believe the RIAA is protecting anyone but the money grubbing music companies. This is not about the artists. They're ripped off on a daily basis by the labels they're signed to. Forced to make expensive videos (that come out of their own pockets), sign away their domain names, etc.

I wish that artists would make their own CDs and I could buy directly from them. They wouldn't even need a contract. Well, that's what a lot of this is about.

We all have heard that the music companies have been price fixing CDs since their inception. What this whole thing is about is that they want to control digital music and scare people into submission.

But let's call this nonsense what it is and not hide behind phoney arguments that any one with two IQ points can see is shallow. We all just end up looking like whiney kids when we say "but they're charging me too much, so it's okay to steal."

If you don't like paying that much, buy used. Or stop whining and don't buy. Or steal and keep your mouth shut about it. Protesting and stealing makes you look stupid and uninformed.

Unless you are that way....

And that's just how They want you to me. Stupid and gullible. End of rant. Thank you.

I am 16 and a napster user, put i do not feel downloading songs hurts the music industry, i use mp3s as a trial form of music to decide if i like the song enough to buy the cd. Of the mp3s i have now, i have or plan to buy almoust all of the artists cds. Napster is helping the music industry by giving them free publicity, so the riaa should shut up and go and play with the billions of dollars the industry reaps in every year

Until someone developes a way to download or xerox a BMW or a Lexus then the Public/governing authorites will understand we need to prevent copyright infringment- WE ALL lose if musicians are not compensated for their unique creative efforts whether they are pop artists or high art composers. If we don't stop the napster "PIGS" then we better all start learning to play an instrument because that maybe the only way to ever hear music again. What musician can possibly dedicate their life and their soul to music without financial return for their work.

Being a user of several on-line music houses, a FM Stereo listener, an Audiophile, and have an extensive knowledge of computing..... There is no reason that napster couldn't put standard copy protection algorythms to keep people from putting the information on CD. EMUSIC.com does this with promotional tracks! I think this is a perfect example of greedy people not taking the steps with technology to protect their investment. I can record music on CD from FM Stereo in complete album form, and get better info on a CD or tape than MP3 or other compressed formats. Is anyone stopping the play of complete albums on FM, or even complaining about it?? NO... Analog is a thing of the past in mainstream, but is still better format to those that have a good way to capture it.. I have recordings of the aforemention means, but I do not sell or distribute... and when I find an artist's recording that appeals to me, I buy the thing so the artists get their $1.50 and the supply chain gets the other $12+ in most cases. In return, I get the info that comes with the music, and usually a better recording. So, to me the only thing this is doing is limiting an option I have to expose unfamiliar music choices. I am not going to the record store and making selections that I am unsure that I will like. Thanks to all of those who don't follow the rules, or that are so insecure that they have to worry about getting ripped off... They will be the ones that will eventually lose in the long run anyway, no matter what they do. Closing this small leak of media is not going to do much in the scheme of things... there are plenty of ways to copy media in digital form without napster -- the honest will buy, the copyright infringers are not going to be phased by this...