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BMG to Purchase Napster

Posted by michael on from the napster-plz-die-thx dept.

asv108 writes "In a dramatic reversal, Bertelsmann has agreed to purchase Napster's assets. Founder Shawn Fanning and CEO Konrad Hilbers are set to return to the company after announcing their resignation earlier this week."

6 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. so.. by jglow · · Score: 2, Interesting

    so.. the company that was (or still is?) suing Napster has now purchased it. I think it's safe to say that Napster is officially dead.

    --


    There's no "I" in Linux.. err..
  2. as usual, the music industry by JeanBaptiste · · Score: 4, Interesting

    is about 2 years behind everyone else... I am just worried they bought napster in order to patent some of the involved technologies. They do have the money to pay the lawyers to try to do that.

  3. Who still cares about Napster? by agent+oranje · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I haven't used Napster since "the man" first cracked down on them, because there are so many alternatives which will forever be free. I don't use these, either, as emusic.com provides quality music, fast downloads, and I'm actually supporting the artists in the end. I'd rather pay a small fee to get what I want then endlessly search for what I want with a free client.

    Napster is dead, and due to the fact that Napster isn't Jesus, Napster is going to stay dead. I'm glad the record companies are wasting their time and resources trying to bring back the service they destroyed. The irony of companies wasting their money trying to revitalize a service that they claimed would cause them to lose money. -agent oranje. its not just for breakfast anymore.

    --
    -agent oranje.
  4. Re:so? by Xacid · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm curious though...can these free ones ever be stopped indefinitely? It seems like more and more pop up whenever one dies. Is it even technologically possible to stop peer to peer file sharing that will filter out copyrighted files while leaving non-copyrighted files in the bin for the picking? Poor guys at Napster...how does a bankrupt company turn down $16 million to begin with? Did the deal free them of all debt from them? It's like telling a bum that he could sell his shirt for $200. Seems like they're kicking a dead horse with this one...

  5. Re:..Does anyone still care? by PepsiProgrammer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    yeah their uncentralized and unstoppable alright, thats why the linux client, and morpheus (same network) no longer function.

    --
    "The United States has no right, no desire, and no intention to impose our form of government on anyone else." - Bush 05
  6. Peer-to-Peer design goals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    A de-centralised system is needed. Take into affect why Napster was shutdown, by the following illustration on Napster's centralised peer-to-peer access...

    ASQDS=Authentication Structured Query Database Server
    P2P=Software able to answer requests for files as well as request files from another server.

    P2P
    / | \
    / | \
    P2P--ASQDS--P2P
    \ | /
    \ | /
    NP2P

    The problem with the above Napster design is that design prohibits users from directly accessing other P2P data servers without the ASQDS. And so, Napster is a centralised design for the sole reason of 1)tracking data requests, 2)tracking data transfers, and generally 3)providing revenue to tele-marketers. A more logical approach to a file sharing system would be...

    P2P
    ASQDS
    |||
    |||
    P2P ====+=== P2P
    ASQDS====+===ASQDS
    |||
    |+|
    P2P ASQDS (forwarding-bridge)
    |+|
    |||
    P2P ====+=== P2P
    ASQDS====+===ASQDS
    |||
    |||
    P2P
    ASQDS

    ...somehow, the above design looks just like the Gnutella networks. Thus, I promote the usage of Vanilla Nutella and not its proprietary derivatives including but not limited to BearShare and Limeware.