Napster, MP3s and the Fate of the World
I first ran across Napster shortly after it came out, which I recall being sometime last fall. Forever ago, in Internet time. It didn't take a rocket scientist, or even a lawyer, to figure out that the Recording Industry Association of America was going to have a big fit.
For those subscribers to SNET Internet who have no idea what I'm talking about -- Napster is a software program that allows computer users on the Internet to join together in a vast, decentralized network to share compressed music files, better known as MP3s. A Napster user these days, at any given time, has access for free to a not-insignificant percentage of all the popular music that has ever been recorded.
This is a very bad thing, according to the recording industry and some artists, who do not have the word "free" foremost in mind when they think about their product catalog.
On the other hand, some artists and entrepreneurs argue that the online "free music" revolution is a boon, a paradigm shift, a marketing and sales opportunity and a way to stick it, bigtime, to the semi-monolithic and monopolistic recording industry, which has been selling us two-dollar CDs for $17.99 for way too long.
There are lawsuits everywhere, and Napster and MP3s have become front-page news in recent weeks -- especially when the band Metallica went to court to stop piracy of its music. Predictibly, this has inspired a web backlash -- see http://www.paylars.com, which mocks the rich rock stars and sees the suit as an assault on Metallica's own fans.
We asked SNET Internet subscribers about Napster, MP3s and the issues involved, and nearly half of those responding to our survey didn't know what we were talking about. It's not something that affects most people -- it's off their radar.
SNET Internet takes no official stance on the use of Napster or the use of our service to download MP3s. And courts have consistently held that Internet Service Providers are no more responsible for the content passed across the Internet between computers than, say, telephone companies are responsible for what is said between people on the phone. Which is to say -- not very much, if at all.
But we think subscribers should be aware of the issues involved. What *should* music cost? How will it be distributed in the future? How will artists be compensated? The only sure thing in the marketplace for digital goods is that things are going to change.
