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Napster Usage Quadruples
tewl noted a CNN story that says that Napster's usage has quadrupled... it stands among the fastest growing software apps ever. And since the record industry sold more CDs then ever last year, that of course proves what all these lawsuits are about *cough*.
I was one of the people who was motiviated by the law suit to try out Napster. Being a middle aged fogey not plugged into the campus scene, I'd never heard of it until it started making legal headlines.
I was completely floored by how easy to use and convenient it was.
I suppose there's no way to know scientifically how Napster affects CD sales, but common sense suggests that it will help them at first but eventually hinder them as home networking and audio technology advances. Right now, I don't want to be bothered lugging my laptop to my stereo and plugging it in, and the limited storage of portable MP3 players makes the CD medium more convenient. BUT -- if I had an MP3 player on my stereo that was connected by wireless network to my computer I'd gladly never buy another CD again.
The process of playback right now is inconvenient right now, but the process of selection is way more convenient with Napster than going to the record store, whose selection in my tastes is usually limited. It's silly these days for selection to be limited by the physical carrier of the information. I think it would be cool if I could go to a record store and have them custom burn CDs for me! That could be a interesting business plan for Napster -- provide distributed MP3 sharing for record stores, with royalties goint to the distributors of course.
Right now, I haven't decided on the morality of the Napster service, so I haven't used it that much. When I was trying it out I used it to download stuff by long dead artists who were screwed by their labels to begin with, and things which were just not available through the normal distribution mechanism. It seems like the copyright system really protects the distributors of music rather than the artists, which tends to make me think, "screw 'em". However, I would be happier if I knew the artists were copacetic with my using their music that way.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Almost all of the core of Intellectual Property law concerns profit (and not some concept of "infringement" of rights), if there is no financial damage to the copyright owner and no financial gain to the "copyright violater", then it becomes something very much different (and something much harder to stop through legal action). Additionally, in this case, if there is no loss of profit for the artists or record labels, then the claim that Napster represents "fair use" is strengthened a bit.