Feelings on Napster?

I'm of two minds as well, the artists are due their fair share, but there has always been ways to copy music and hasn't crippled the industry. The arguement can be made that there has never been "CD quality" copies available, but being an audiophile, MP3 and it's lossy compression techniques don't interest me much. Trying before you buy strikes me a fair. A recent case in point, the new Tragically Hip album was inadvertently released on the 'net and downloaded by many people before it was available through the traditional record stores (Music @ Work, good album). I listened to it for a few weeks, and then was one of the first to buy the production CD and attend their concert to enjoy their music. Here's where the whole music industry is at fault: the artist receives anywhere between $1 to $2.50 (max) for each CD sold, the rest is kept by the record company. I'd be happy to pay Steve Winwood $5 for a complete download of his next album, available through his secure site. He writes, performs, and produces his own work in his own studio, why should I pay $15 for the CD? The music industry argues they make significant investment in developing new bands that never make them money, but in my opinion they are pushing "cookie cutter" bands moulded to their own success formulas. As an example, I'd prefer to see Winwood double his income than pay record companies to keep their A&R guys well stocked in coke and Porsches. In order to take advantage of the music on the 'net requires a certain level of financial investment, either a DSL, Cable modem, or satellite link to download these huge files, and a CD burner to make the copies. In any event, targeting Napster does not address the fundamental issue of value-delivery of quality musci. The record companies have profited far too much for far too long...

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.