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Napster To Abandon MP3 For .NAP
simong writes "As reported in The Register Napster is to abandon the MP3 format for a proprietary .nap format being developed with Bertelsmann. " As Cliff pointed out "dirt.nap is about what Napster amounts to these days anyway." You can get more more information from Yahoo's Reuters feed.
That's giving the customer what they want, for sure :)
Like it or not, MP3 is the standard, and people aren't going to change away from it unless another format allows greater benefits for the end user (better quality/compression ratio) or the other format is aggressively pushed by Microsoft (not that WMA isn't necessarily better than MP3, but I hardly expect Microsoft to let it succeed or fail on its own merits).
Nothing in file sharing is really going to change unless media companies really go after MP3 traders for their actions, which won't happen because of the massive potential backlash. You can destroy the Napster of the month for years, but all that will happen is people will trade underground the way they did before Napster made it so easy.
On the plus side, torpedoing easy-to-use file sharing programs is going to boost overall computer literacy, as people learn to track down their MP3s on Usenet and FTP sites and/or apply DeCSS-style cracks to the wide variety of "secure" music formats. If you think of the 'net as an ecosystem, the destruction of one of the larger trees in the forest is just causing explosive adaptation among Internet users. If the RIAA had been careful, they could have preserved Napster long enough to channel most of its users into more profitable channels. As it is, they've destroyed the biggest centralized point for MP3 trading, and they'll never have another chance to influence so many music traders at once again.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
But instead, they destroyed Napster and along with it their last chance to coopt the music-trading community.
Like that old guy said, If you strike [Napster] down, [the music-sharing community] will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
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Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
Good point. Oh, uh, by the way, Microsoft Office has how many hundred million users?
:)
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Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
It's an impressive feat to put the last nail in your own coffin while your on the inside!
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Actually, yes, Napster have licensed Adobe's most advanced encryption technology. A ".NAP" is a
Tell your friends about xenu.net
The real tragedy of Napster is that we may never again have such easy access to the more obscure music that isn't currently "in print." In its heyday, Napster helped introduce me to some old jazz and blues recordings that I would never have been able to find in a record store.
Unfortunately, the court cases surrounding Napster have poisened the well to such an extent that I doubt that we'll ever see an "all music ever created" service again at any price.
** The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employers - past, present, or future**
Slashdot: Yesterdays Register stories, today...
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
RIP Napster, we hardly knew ye.
Why are the RIAA still hounding Napster when the game has clearly evolved on to the next level?
Napster is dead, long live OpenNap
Also in the news: Amiga Q2 gross profits up 40% to $39.50.
m00.