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Searching for Pro-Napster Experts and Speakers?

Posted by Cliff on from the defending-the-new-distribution-methods dept.

JLF asks: "I chair a local leadership seminar (Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership) for high school Sophomores from Eastern Indiana where we try to introduce the students to a variety of viewpoints on several current events or issues. One issue we want to cover at this year's seminar is copyright law, and more specifically, Napster. I've done some research thru Google and found several leads for experts/speakers who are, for lack of a better term, anti-Napster, but I'm having trouble finding sources of pro-Napster sentiment who can make a strong point in favor of the file-trading that goes in through Napster. So I'm wondering if the Slashdot community might be able to suggest some places I could look for good arguments in favor of Napster ('good' as in it goes beyond the basic 'free music rulez!' argument), or even better, someone in the area (the seminar is being held at Ball State U. in Muncie, IN) who might be good to contact about speaking at the seminar. The format we use is very relaxed, each speaker gives a short (2-4 minute) intro about his-or-herself and then we open the floor up to questions from the students for about 45 minutes. Thanks!"

3 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Open Sessame by Wintermancer · · Score: 5

    Opinionated experts on Napster?

    On Slashdot?

    None here. We're all out. Absolutely none. Not at all. We don't have any. Nope. Nosiree. Nada. Zero. Zilch.....

  2. A pro-Napster artist? by Glowing+Fish · · Score: 5

    If you aren't looking for someone who is a legal expert as such, it would make a lot of sense to find one of the many artists who have come out in favor of Napster.

    Chuck D comes to mind.

    --
    Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
    1. Re:A pro-Napster artist? by update() · · Score: 5
      Everybody always says Courtney Love defended Napster in that speech. Here's what she actually said:

      This opinion is one I really haven't formed yet, so as I speak about Napster now, please understand that I'm not totally informed. I will be the first in line to file a class action suit to protect my copyrights if Napster or even the far more advanced Gnutella doesn't work with us to protect us. I'm on [Metallica drummer] Lars Ulrich's side, in other words, and I feel really badly for him that he doesn't know how to condense his case down to a sound-bite that sounds more reasonable than the one I saw today.

      I also think Metallica is being given too much grief. It's anti-artist, for one thing. An artist speaks up and the artist gets squashed: Sharecropping. Don't get above your station, kid. It's not piracy when kids swap music over the Internet using Napster or Gnutella or Freenet or iMesh or beaming their CDs into a My.MP3.com or MyPlay.com music locker. It's piracy when those guys that run those companies make side deals with the cartel lawyers and label heads so that they can be "the labels' friend," and not the artists'.

      I'd be curious to see how articulate she is speaking off the cuff. I remember here, when this came out, everyone was going on about how much smarter she is than Lars Ulrich - like you can compare the text of a prepared speech written by who knows who with the raw transcript of an interview where Timothy (IIRC) left in every last "ummm" and "fuck."

      Unsettling MOTD at my ISP.