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Shawn Fanning Interview
peter303 writes "The Wall Street Journal (via MSNBC) interviewed Shawn Fanning, the founder of Napster.
Shawn talks about the end of Napster and his personal plans."
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..its to locate your servers in a country that doesn't give two shits about the american lawmakers.
Ummm...and risk getting bombed?
The law of excluded middle : Either I'm foo or I'm foobar
But, far more importantly, mad propz to the WSJ for knowing the difference between "less" and "fewer".
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Ummm...and risk getting bombed?
Yes.
if you're reading this, please let it be known that I hold you in the highest esteem for setting off events that exposed the veiled side of the receording industry.
And thanks for all the music!
Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD]
You mean Texas?
The most important question, to my mind, was not addressed in the interview.
Why in God's name did they accept the settlement they did?
What were they thinking?
It should have been plainly obvious to anyone above the age of six that the instant they added any "real" DRM to the servers, they would die. Napster had nothing they could possibly leverage to make a profit other than a brand name image. They had no community, no meaningful service, and absolutely nothing to keep anyone to stay besides those file-swap-advert servers. They just had a recognizable brand name. But that's at least something-- they should have done something with it. Doing the one action guaranteed to get everyone to stop using napster simultaneously-- locking out all old clients and forcing you to download a new client, at a time where alternate programs to napster were already available and just as easy to download-- without first lining up a very definite reason why people would continue to use Napster as a service caused anything positive about that brand name image to evaporate instantly.
Just about everything Napster ever did was stupid, but this one is the one with the most unfathomable motives. Why?
I like how MSNBC had the story title on their tech front page:
"Napster Boy, Interrupted"
Man that would piss me off if I was him and people are still calling me "Napster Boy".
("Hey, Napster Boy, why don't you go download me some mp3's?! Ha ha ha ha! Did you hear that, fellas? I just called Fanny Napster boy! ha ha ha!")
If you had nuts on your chin, would they be chin nuts?
Get some rest, guy - unplug for a while.
You sounded freaking *EXHAUSTED* in that interview...
Cheers,
Jim
-- My Weblog.
A very good article. I think if anything Fanning will be remembered for jump starting the p2p revolution, getting the attention of the RIAA who had obviously underestimated the power of technology, as well as bringing awareness to a lot of average consumers on certain unfair aspects of the way the 'music industry' works, and last but not least introducing a lot of us to a lot of wonderful, independent music. Anyone know where he's working these days? The article didn't mention it.
The DRm was needed to satisfy the big name record labels, but if you ever used the Napster Beta you'd see that most of the content was still in plain mp3.
I'd imagine that all the big label content would be in limited DRM format, and people would realise that the plain mp3's provided by smaller labels were better value for money. Next thing you know the community around napster would higlight the best mp3 content and some minor band - no stars - just talent would be making more money of the digital downlaods than the major labels.
Napster in the past showed that it could make significant changes to what people were listening to simply because it would provide more content than anywhere else and a collaborative filtering system through good old word of mouth. I wouldn't doubt that the label content and the napster brand would help attract the early users, but the more free content would probably become a more significant part of the service.
Hey it's a theory.
The real question is why did napster outsource all their DRM development to DWS, who in turn outsourced it to everyone else. this was a bad decision which led to problems when playmedia filed all sorts of lawsuits claiming they owned all the DRM technology - expect a DRM system from playmedia sometime soon.
From what I've read radio faced a similar problem of music licensing, only at that time the issue was the licensing of copyrighted classic music recordings. The solution was to open a new genre of music, pop music.
However, this would have required Napster's founders to have actually done some work that they probably didn't want to do, such as interacting with social classes of people who were ignored by the mainstream. But that's just not what people who want to only have clean hands programming want to do. Too bad, Napster blew the biggest opportunity in this generation to dominate a new medium.
Let be honest here. Getting single tracks off P2P networks works pretty well.
But, I would just love for someone within the RIAA (or BPI - UK version) to actually sit down with a list of 5 albums and try to download entire CD's.
It's barely possible. The chances of finding 10 tracks in the same album which aren't badly encoded, labelled wrongly or sampled at 96kbps is extremely high.
Now that doesn't mean that what is happening is ant the less worse (after all, it's a free for all sharing of copyrighted material than many people do not already own) but personally I think that it's only really single sales which are damaged as much as the RIAA/BPI make out to be.
Getting all the tracks of an album decently encoded is bording on the impossible most of the time.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
Sealand is a joke, _7_ mile offshore is well within the bounds of UK law. The telling statement is 'self proclaimed' whch means squat I can proclaim my self king of America, it don't matter damn until the law wants to dispute my claim.
The promise of data freedom is a joke, Sealand is an old WWII gunnery fort, designed to defend the Thames I think, where do you think the data link comes a shore? Kent or Essex?
The best place to put your data if you want immunity from prosecution would be the servers of the NSA. National security concerns would stop any court case dead. Of course you could develop a sudden fatal heart condition when they find out.
Gee, after the WSJ learned that the dude didn't make the millions they thought he did, the interview kinda petered out, didn't it? Like "Move along. Nothing to see here!" being called out in the middle of a circus.
Bhudda-lite
(Whatever)
Is a Canadian allowed to say that?
Regardless, as a US citizen, I would like to back up the parent statement wholeheartedly.
WSJ: Compact disc shipments fell 7% in the first six months of this year. The recording industry says its data show consumers who download music from the Internet are purchasing fewer CDs
And in this time of unprecented economic growth, prosperity and consumer confidence, theres no other explanation for that, right?
I was pretty disappointed that Fanning replied "It may be hurting the music industry at this point ..." instead of pointing out that six months is not a large enough amount of time to gauge the real effect of p2p networks. That may be obvious to Slashdotters but Average Joes (and Janes, don't want to be sexiest now...) might be tempted to take the RIAA's word that p2p is obviously to blame.
Fanning also misses a prime opportunity to explain that the "proposed legislation in Washington that would excuse the industry from antihacking laws" is essentially giving RIAA the freedom to engage in cyberterrorism. He, instead, just makes a bland "it won't work" statement and leaves it at that.
It really upsets me that someone who was on the forefront of p2p networking and is now giving an opportunity to speak to the masses via newspaper completely wastes this opportunity to explain the pro-p2p viewpoint to everyone. If we don't start getting some big name people to clearly and coherently explain to everyone why p2p is not necessarily evil, the public may well indeed support the RIAA's tatics simply because they haven't thought deeply enough about the problem.
GMD
watch this
Perhaps you can mark it up to his age, but I was impressed by the candor and honest that Fanning demonstrated in the interview. Even though he didn't go into too much detail, I was surprised at how candid he was about the mistakes he and the company made... I think he'll go far and we'll be hearing more from him in a few years!
No, more like Redmond.
WSJ: You're living in Mountain View, in Silicon Valley?
Mr. Fanning: Yeah, I rent a house here.
I find it ridiculously unfair that Enron execs (and others) who have no real product, screw their shareholders and aren't able to lead make millions while real innovators rent houses in SiliValley.
(High cost of living jokes aside...)
-Sean
The telling statement is 'self proclaimed' whch means squat I can proclaim my self king of America, it don't matter damn until the law wants to dispute my claim.
Long live the king!!!
Metallica jumped the shark with Napster, no doubt about it.
You mean Texas?
Nah. California.
Ya see, I don't figure the decline in CD sales as a result of piracy, or of changes to the consumer economic model. I think it is good old-fashioned grass-roots protest. I know, myself, I haven't bought a mass-market CD since the RIAA started their petty little lawsuits to drive everyone out of business, and I know I'm not the only one. I also know a good deal of friends who are using KaZaA(lite), Freenet, LimeWare, et al, in protest of the death of Napster.
I say Rock On to P2P! 'Real Soon Now'(*), people will figure out that it's the downturn in your economy and protest from consumers over price and silicone-inflated plastic singing Barbie clones that is driving down sales, not P2P. Perhaps, in some fit of irrational sanity, they may actually examine why people use P2P, and figure out that if they can improve on the model with, say smooth resumes on interrupt, distributed Akamai servers, no bogus files, live cuts, better indexing, and proper labeling, that they may actually be able to charge a resonable amount per month to let people download mp3 or Ogg files. But, alas, they cling to "We'll only release music that is old and out of date, and we'll insist on proprietary formats, and DRM that ensures that you'll never play this on another computer, or even your own if you have to reinstall, or if we go out of business."
So, while you're at it, write your congressperson and senator, and urge them to kill any bill which requires DRM enabled sound cards and speakers (which, yes, has already been proposed), let alone any bill which requires anything electronic to be DRM.
Next week: How to get your Barbie to record Britney Spears songs! (By some odd coincidence, the electronics get implanted in her chest, she switches randomly between anatomicly correct and "anatomicly unidentifiable", and Ken does all the singing anyways)
(*)Mad Propz to Jerry Pournelle and Chaos Manor!
http://www.jerrypournelle.com
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
Adopting your own brother... that must have been a fun little family outing. Sounds like Shawn has been living a somewhat hellish existence.
Perhaps he could market this somewhat like the "Osbornes".
Business Model:
1-Dysfunctional Family. Check.
2-Famous Member of Family. Check.
3-Good Market for Reality TV shows. Check.
4-?
5-Profit!
Shawn if you're reading this, I want you to know that my real feelings are that you've done a good thing by adopting your brother. Reading between the silent lines I get the feeling that he was being damaged back East.
I have an immense respect for Mr Fanning. Here's a guy that quits school to try to write code on his own and changes the world. You think the word is too strong? Everybody remembers the Napster days. People burning CDs like crazy, sharing rips of old albums, live concerts, weird one-of CDs picked up in cut-out bins. I made my best compilations during that time. I received awesome CDs from my friends, packed with stuff I had never heard. A guy at work started making CDs with kids songs. Another made the most hilarious Christmas songs compilation. These were people that had almost no interest in music before Napster arrived. I could go on and on... I miss Napster. Every day.
Thank you Mr. Fanning.
there's no place like ~
Couldn't really let this topic pass without linking to the story:
RIAA Sues Radio Stations For Giving Away Free Music.
It was clear from context what we were talking about. We were talking about the illegal download of music as compared to the illegal business practices of some record companies. There's really no way you could have misunderstood this unless you deliberately took my words out of context.
I absolutely call propaganda when I see it; my posting history reflects this, and you're free to browse it any time. But this is not propaganda. This is simple stuff. Downloading something that you don't have the rights to download is stealing.
WSJ: Compact disc shipments fell 7% in the first six months of this year.
A 7% drop? That's it? Wow, they're doing amazingly well in these tough times. The company I work for (different industry) dropped about 50% in sales.
Actually it's my fault record sales dropped. I used to buy CDs like crazy from those "10 CDs for $.01" deals. Now I just buy used, unless one of my favorite artists just comes out with a new release, or I can't find it used. That rarely happens though.
The newer artists I favor are an acquired taste, so they are common in the "Used" section. Also, that section is where I purchase bands I never heard of before, and I have yet to be dissappointed. So, it works both ways.
As for the older artists, they rarely come out with something new. The only new CD I bought recently was Dio "Killing the Dragon" which was released this year. This guy has been performing since at least the 50s, and concentrating on the Metal genre at least since his experience with Black Sabbath in 70s. (I say "at least" because nobody knows how old he is). My point is that many of the artists I favor are retired or dead, and therefore are not spitting out new recordings any more. This particular case is an exception.
In conclusion, people like me see the "New" CD shelves as no more than obsticals between the door and the "Used" shelves/bins (which often, though not always, are found in the back of the store). It's really the best "Under $5" I can spend (and sometimes as low as $1.99 or even $.99).
New sales from me have dropped at least 95% in the past decade. Feel the burn.
TodayTM BillyJoelTM GoogleTMd for StitchTMes due to WindowsTM while RollerbladeTMing with an AppleTM and a PopsicleTM
Sealand was declared sovereign before international borders were established. (It used to be that if you were outside the range of British cannons (2 1/2 miles), you weren't under their juristiction.)
That and a few hundred other comments on this previous (Napster + Sealand) story on Slashdot.
What's this Submit thingy do?
Young Mr. Fanning is obviously the kind of person who is going to be just fine, and be successful at whatever he does. He did not achieve fortune, but he did receive the fame of being a true inventor. It's appalling how he was treated after he created something so new that it literally rocked the entire world. We should herald and praise our young inventors, even when their craft appears witchy at first glance. Instead our countrymen repeated the mistake they have made over and over - they saw something new, like a tribe or a lion. It looked scary to them so they killed it.
And me without mod points to downvote the parent. Damn.
OK so here's a quick summary of sealand:
First re-occupied and declared a country in 1967 when the limits of UK territorial waters were 3 nautical miles. They were later extended to 12 miles but international law states that they're still an independent country (if the UK extended their territorial waters by 500 miles they wouldn't then have a claim on France and Ireland - the boundary is drawn half way between countries in this case).
They got attacked by some Dutch in the 70s but fought back and reclaimed it. The UK government has never actually acknowledged it's existence, but the British citizens working on Sealand have their income classed as overseas.
I can proclaim my self king of America
I offer you my sword, your majesty.
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
Oops - sorry I have better things to do than to keep up with French politics. Yeah, I must sit at home watching Springer and peruse /. durring commercials.
"Jean Marie LePen is a far-right French politician."
Does this mean that not all French are pussies?
Go back to being an AC...
And yet every day hundreds of people with no jobs, no incomes, and quite likely no housing or prospects for getting any have children. And that's A-OK because then they can roll up to the nearest government hand out office and pick up their crackcheck and some food stamps.
Shawn is in a hell of a lot better position to take responsibility for another human being than a lot of people who have bio kids.
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
RIAA Sues Radio Stations for Giving Away Free Music
...
LOS ANGELES--The Recording Industry Association of America filed a $7.1 billion lawsuit against the nation's radio stations Monday, accusing them of freely distributing copyrighted music.
"It's criminal," RIAA president Hilary Rosen said. "Anyone at any time can simply turn on a radio and hear a copyrighted song. Making matters worse, these radio stations often play the best, catchiest song off the album over and over until people get sick of it. Where is the incentive for people to go out and buy the album?"
According to Rosen, the radio stations acquire copies of RIAA artists' CDs and then broadcast them using a special transmitter, making it possible for anyone with a compatible radio-wave receiver to listen to the songs.
cpeterso
Shawn should write an autobiographical book. He has seen a lot of behind the scenes technical and legal sides of this HUGE issue that has seen lots of press. He is a semi-celebrity, so he could probably sell quite a few books.
Plus he just adopted his 15-year old brother? There must be some interesting stories behind that. Sounds a lot like Dave Eggers' "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" (highly recommended!) In fact, the title "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" could easily apply to Napster!
cpeterso
Fine. I steal music. I stole music yesterday. I may steal some more today. But is it unethical?
Stealing is prima facie unethical. This is patently obvious.
There is no fallacy here. What you're doing is wrong in both the legal and ethical senses. It's also wrong in the moral sense, assuming your moral framework in some way resembles those held by the vast majority of humanity.
If your moral framework is not in line with most of your peers, then you can rightfully be considered a sociopath. Are you a sociopath?
That I had to think for a moment to recall who Shawn Fanning was says enough about him to satisfy whatever curiousity would lead me to read an interview with him.
- Dan I.
+5, Salute-worthy!!