Kevin's Log - August 11, 2000
This is my Napster rant.
My rant can no longer be contained. It will do its ranting thing then it will be done. It will not effectively change anything, but at least I can stop thinking about it.
My problems with Napster stem from the very basic core ideas of which Napster is made of.
At its core Napster was not created to be what people now believe it to be. In the last three or so months Napster has become almost like a movement more than a product (which is what it started out as).
The guy who made Napster, Shawn Fanning, did not start Napster as a way to bring down the evil recording industry monster for its abuses on poor helpless musicians and artists. Nor did he start Napster because he felt the government was taking away his RIGHT, to trade copyrighted materials without the written permission of the publishers or artists who made it, which would be protected by the freedom of speech. (which of course it really isn’t).
He created Napster cause he was sick and tired of the unreliable forms of piracy he had to deal with in order to get music for free.
He states in an interview with zdnet music that Napster spawned from his frustration with MP3.com the Lycos MP3 engine and Scour.net.
Later when asked when he realized he needed to build a whole company around the Napster phenomenon he said, "But I think the point at which I realized it had serious potential was when download.com put us in the download spotlight. It was very early, and we were still like beta or alpha stage, and so we started receiving a ton of download. The server became overloaded, and that's when I realized that this had a huge market."
That sentence shows once and for all that Shawn was in it for the money the second he realized he could get some.
The next question in that interview was if there was any hesitation on his part when it came time to take Napster to the next level, (venture capitalist corporation status with coo’s and ceo’s and vp’s and marketing and all that crap) and Shawn answered, "Not really. I don't think I was hesitant. I just think it was a question of time. That's why I ended up leaving school - because it required so much time.".
Of course ask any college student if they want to finish school or create a million dollar corporation and go from no income to six figures and I think you will get the same answer no matter how legal it is.
And he really didn’t think it was a big deal to trade the songs. Many people didn’t. I mean the record industry was already after MP3.com but they were not really pressing the issue because of the amount of actual content that MP3.com was moving around was rather small. And that has been the industries stand for years. Its not a big deal until the amount information being transferred reaches numbers that can affect direct sales numbers. And thats the way it should be. Most software developers know for a fact there products will pirated to some extent, but it has always been a small percentage due to how the information had to be transported. With the new state of the net this small percentage has the potential to do actual damage. If Napster is let off with a slap on the wrist it will set a piracy precedent that will envelope the market and cause allot of companies damage. There’s no way to be certain how much damage until it happens. But you would not think twice about telling someone who walks into a house where things are "not for sale", that stealing the stereo and television should be protected by freedom of speech. Thats just crazy.
I am not saying lynch the Napster development team or burn down there headquarters. I am saying that the aspect of there software that searches for mp3 files on users machines and allows the transfer of those files should be removed and acts similar to what Napster is doing should be made illegal. Napster still has the chat part of the application right. Since they have been in the congressional hearings they have stated repeatedly that the chat feature is why people get Napster in the first place and that the freedom to freely communicate cannot and should not be taken away. I agree completely. Napster chat should be allowed to stay. RIGHT ON for Napster chat. Just kill off the file transfer and mp3 search code and everything will be fine.
So do you Mr. Joe average reader think you will be using Napster if it only facilitates chatting? I personally am not gonna give up my ICQ or AIM but hey thats just me.
~K~
My rant can no longer be contained. It will do its ranting thing then it will be done. It will not effectively change anything, but at least I can stop thinking about it.
My problems with Napster stem from the very basic core ideas of which Napster is made of.
At its core Napster was not created to be what people now believe it to be. In the last three or so months Napster has become almost like a movement more than a product (which is what it started out as).
The guy who made Napster, Shawn Fanning, did not start Napster as a way to bring down the evil recording industry monster for its abuses on poor helpless musicians and artists. Nor did he start Napster because he felt the government was taking away his RIGHT, to trade copyrighted materials without the written permission of the publishers or artists who made it, which would be protected by the freedom of speech. (which of course it really isn’t).
He created Napster cause he was sick and tired of the unreliable forms of piracy he had to deal with in order to get music for free.
He states in an interview with zdnet music that Napster spawned from his frustration with MP3.com the Lycos MP3 engine and Scour.net.
Later when asked when he realized he needed to build a whole company around the Napster phenomenon he said, "But I think the point at which I realized it had serious potential was when download.com put us in the download spotlight. It was very early, and we were still like beta or alpha stage, and so we started receiving a ton of download. The server became overloaded, and that's when I realized that this had a huge market."
That sentence shows once and for all that Shawn was in it for the money the second he realized he could get some.
The next question in that interview was if there was any hesitation on his part when it came time to take Napster to the next level, (venture capitalist corporation status with coo’s and ceo’s and vp’s and marketing and all that crap) and Shawn answered, "Not really. I don't think I was hesitant. I just think it was a question of time. That's why I ended up leaving school - because it required so much time.".
Of course ask any college student if they want to finish school or create a million dollar corporation and go from no income to six figures and I think you will get the same answer no matter how legal it is.
And he really didn’t think it was a big deal to trade the songs. Many people didn’t. I mean the record industry was already after MP3.com but they were not really pressing the issue because of the amount of actual content that MP3.com was moving around was rather small. And that has been the industries stand for years. Its not a big deal until the amount information being transferred reaches numbers that can affect direct sales numbers. And thats the way it should be. Most software developers know for a fact there products will pirated to some extent, but it has always been a small percentage due to how the information had to be transported. With the new state of the net this small percentage has the potential to do actual damage. If Napster is let off with a slap on the wrist it will set a piracy precedent that will envelope the market and cause allot of companies damage. There’s no way to be certain how much damage until it happens. But you would not think twice about telling someone who walks into a house where things are "not for sale", that stealing the stereo and television should be protected by freedom of speech. Thats just crazy.
I am not saying lynch the Napster development team or burn down there headquarters. I am saying that the aspect of there software that searches for mp3 files on users machines and allows the transfer of those files should be removed and acts similar to what Napster is doing should be made illegal. Napster still has the chat part of the application right. Since they have been in the congressional hearings they have stated repeatedly that the chat feature is why people get Napster in the first place and that the freedom to freely communicate cannot and should not be taken away. I agree completely. Napster chat should be allowed to stay. RIGHT ON for Napster chat. Just kill off the file transfer and mp3 search code and everything will be fine.
So do you Mr. Joe average reader think you will be using Napster if it only facilitates chatting? I personally am not gonna give up my ICQ or AIM but hey thats just me.
~K~