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Bertelsman Seeks to Buy Napster

Posted by timothy on from the buy-it-all-let-god-sort-them-out dept.

jbc writes: "SF Gate is one of several places carrying the story that Bertelsman, which already invested a significant amount of money in Napster, is now looking to buy Napster outright. This is based on an interview with Bertelsman CEO Thomas Middelhoff that was published last week in the German newspaper Die Welt."

4 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Sure, go ahead... by Kid+Zero · · Score: 5, Funny

    You can have it, we're finished playing with it by now. :)

  2. Other things he's bought recently by btellier · · Score: 5, Funny

    - BETA-Max Videotapes, Inc.
    - Disco Ball factory
    - Menudo
    - 386 12mhz, 20mb HDD, 640k RAM and a copy of Commander Keen

  3. Does it really matter? by hosebee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Many adults like myself take a civil disobedience type approach to music sharing. I buy as many CDs (if not more) than I used to, but I unabashedly use these services to make sure those CDs I buy are going to be worth it. People that fall more or less in this category (I think) are waiting for a good digital music policy from the major labels(although there seems to be no light at the end of this tunnel).

    However, as I've seen with my little sister and her friends (and others of the pre-teen to teen age group), they have "grown up" on free music whenever they want it, so "why buy the CD?". At this young age, none of them had given any thought (nor had I at that age) to Intellectual Property and the other issues regularly discussed in the heyday of Napster.

    It is the difference between "The artist certainly has rights, but the industry is subverting the process to their substantial benefit, and this must be altered." and "Hey, we have a right to free music, how dare you take it away?"

    And obviously, this demographic is too large to ignore.

    -----
    Whimsiprotocol - n. 1. Standards of action or thought developed in a fit of ineptitude.

  4. Bertelsman bought and closed myplay by PhrackCreak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bertelsman bought myplay on May 30th, 2001. Fast forward to early 2002, Bertelsman closed myplay's offices, laying off all but a couple of engineers in charge of wharehousing the software.

    Is this some new tactic to buy and close music software companies?

    --
    - You don't know how to maintain a station wagon either!