Judge Kills Napster Sale Over Conflict of Interest

MaxVlast writes "The New York Times is reporting that 'A bankruptcy judge blocked the sale of Napster Inc. to Bertelsmann AG on Tuesday, killing a deal that might have revived the idled Internet music pioneer.' The Napster CEO used to work for Berteslsmann, and the judge suspects a conflict of interest. The CEO says that Napster will probably go from Chapter 11 to a Chapter 7 liquidation." Reader VinceK adds a link to the same AP story (with no login needed) carried at Biz Report, and more reports at the SJ Mercury News, CBS Marketwatch and InfoWorld.

Comments

Only in America.....

[PhreakOfTime]

only here can a service that was started up for fun, and used to trade items with no money changing hands, end up being bought and sold to put it out of business....

I take my hat off to Napster

[Anenga]

Somebody had to be the sponge, the magnet, whatever - to suck in all the legal battles from the RIAA and allow Gnutella to be born in the background. No matter how many TRL Appearances Shawn Fanning had, how many teens rallied against the RIAA, nothing could stop the impending demise of Napster.

Napster really did pave the way for P2P File Sharing, and they deserve some respect. I mean, who here didn't use Napster?

Re:It was to be expected...

[kryonD]

Intelectual property is a modern concept, invented by greedy bastards that ignore that ideas belongs to everyone.

As much as I disagree with the way the MPAA and the RIAA have handled this brave new world of technology, they are fundamentally right. You have apparently never had something that you put serious effort into creating taken without your consent. Intellectual property is a way of quantifying that a song, or video, or picture, or peice of software exists through the expenditure of someones resources (time, money, etc..) and that expenditure should be justly compensated.

Who are you to claim that a song should belong to you by right. What the hell did you do to help Eminem write the lyrics? How much money did you give Metallica to help them by their instruments? How much recording equipment did you donate to Sony? How many hours in the factory did you volunteer to help press the albums? Who did you hire to teach Dave Matthews to play the Guitar?

Again, I'm not saying that the current actions of the RIAA are morally sound. But having had a peice of software stolen from me in College and billed as somebody elses work woke me up to the fact that people pour a bit of their soul into the things they create and they at the very least deserve to be recognized and if they so desire, compensated for their effort. Recognize that the RIAA and MPAA are products of the industry itself. They are trying to work in an arena they had no hand in building and really don't have the option to just sit back and say, "fuck it, nobody get's paid anymore." Artists and studios make a ton of money because we the people are willing to pay it for the enjoyment of their product. No matter how "Robin Hood" altruistic the intent may have been, stealing the music as a response to the high prices is not the answer. Unless someone can come up with a way to restructure these industries to where the artists are compensated for their work and the consumers are granted that work at reasonable prices to make it accesible to everyone, the RIAA will continue to raid houses of 'innocent' teenagers who were just downloading their favorite NSYNC song.

FYI, I used Napster. The difference is, when I found something I liked, I went out and bought the album. Many thanks to the hard working people who spend years perfecting a talent so that I can sit lazily on my couch and enjoy their work.