Gotta work out a better quoting system in Word, but this will do. Read on.
Adios,
LarZ
--------------- TAMA - The Strongest Name in Drums ---------------
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf
Of Dan Frakes
Sent: Friday, 28 July 2000 4:39
To: MDList
Subject: Re: MD: Napster
I'd be willing to bet all the money to my name that 99% of the songs on
Napster are available at Tower, Virgin, or an online CD store.
Wrong bet. There's a lot of stuff out there that just can't be found at ANY
CD store, and believe me, I have tried all over the world for some stuff
that I've landed!
>If you have no way of paying for something then how can it be
>stealing??? It's not stealing if there is no way to pay for it!!
Not true at all.
Granted. It's perfectly logical that it is not true.
>The record industry has to realize that the whole world is changing.
>Hell, all someone has to do is make arrangements with someone in some
>country that does not honor US or international copyrights and charge
>5 cents a download. I don't see how you can stop someone from doing
>something like this when they are not bound by US law.
There are international copyright laws.
There are, but not all countries adhere to them. Then again, they're not
necessarily developed countries either.
>If the person who started the internet had licensed the Web, he would
>be richer then Gates today. But I'm glad that he didn't. The internet
>is the last true democracy. All we need if the government sticking
>it's 2 cents into it and blanking the whole thing up.
Well, now that you mention it, some British company is now claiming that
they own the patent for hypertext links, and so everyone using links on
their web site now owes them a royalty ;-)
All that said, I think your idea about charging a modest fee for MP3
downloads is a good one, and one we'll see before too long.
With any luck. It's the only thing that doesn't defy true logic.
>Maybe when Metallash!t has to keep canceling concerts because they
>can't sell enough tickets, they'll have a change of heart too!! They
>are got to be lower then pond scum. Even lower then lawyers!!! (if
>you can get that low!!). They are suing their fans!!!! This has got
>to be a first.
I don't get this. A band is upset that people are stealing their music,
they try to shut down the company making such theft possible, and that
makes them "lower than pond scum?" They *aren't* suing their fans. They
are going after Napster.
But why should they? I recall listening to a night show once on 2MMM (a
"rock" station) where the DJ made a comment about "Napster releasing
Metallica's single "I Disappear" before it was even released. I felt it was
my duty to correct the misinformed, for everyone's benefit, so I called the
moron.
Now the WHOLE misconception is that Napster is only providing an interface
between people who have these files. Napster themselves do not rip CD's, do
not store mp3's on their servers, and most certainly do not tell people to
infringe copyright laws. They merely provide a simple interface for people
to exchange their stuff ... like a network hub, on a major scale. After all,
if Napster is at fault for the distribution of mp3's, then why don't we move
on and wipe out IRC as well since a lot of pirated software gets exchanged
via the DCC feature? It's the same thing, and don't you even dare try to
tell me otherwise!
That, to me, is the *real* issue, as it were. So yes, the bands involved in
the lawsuits ARE scum, because they went about it all the wrong way by
wanting to shut down Napster. To bar the users from their service was a
"reasonable" countermeasure to the unwanted distribution of their music, but
not to shut down the service itself. Hell, while we're at it, let's shut
down the entire telecommunications system for also providing people with an
interface to exchange stuff that they shouldn't be. When an obscene phone
caller starts to misappropriate the use of the telephone system for his own
illegal doings, do you see the police demanding that the telephone exchanges
be shutdown and removed? No! So when someone "misappropriates" the use of
Napster, it shouldn't be shut down either. What's good for the goose is good
for the gander.
As for the *real* issues behind the Napster case, I don't buy the "I'm
just downloading music I already have" argument, since on most computers
nowadays, with anything slower than a T1, it's faster to rip the songs
off your own CDs than it is to download a 4-6 MB MP3. The major use for
Napster is to download songs that people don't have.
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