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[Napster] 11 - End of the Road.mp3
psoriac writes "Looks like the long sad saga of Napster is drawing to a final close; after being shut down by the courts, losing its execs, filing for chapter 11, and having its sale to Bertelsmann AG blocked, the remaining physical assets of Napster are being sold at auction by Dovebid. The auction site is close to my house; I think I'll stop by and pick up some memorabilia."
Did anyone buy any of the Enron stuff from Dovebid when that went down a while back?
The main thing that discouraged me, other than lack of money, was the insanely high minimum proxy bid. Most of the stuff wasn't worth that much.
It was also confusing the way they listed a lot of identical items seperately, and then also had "lots" but apparently the minimum bid was still something like $250 for each item in the lot, not the lot as a whole.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Cisco Systems Switches, Routers and Firewalls
Sun Microsystems
VA Linux Servers
Network Appliance Servers
EMC
Dell Servers and More!!
Desktop and Notebook Computers By Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Others!!
Monitors
Printers and Faxes By Hewlett-Packard, Canon, Brother and Others!
Hundreds Of Napster Logo'd Shirts, Hats, Jackets and More!!
Bout time that thing died, then again I thought it was long gone already. Oh well, I hear the new LOTR movie is on Kazaa *scurries away*.
that no matter how hard they try to make an example of one particular program that it just breeds the media hype and another 100 similar programs appear?
P2P is here to stay, and it will just continue to get better for those who use them, and worse for those who oppose them.
A bit dramatic perhaps, but I continue to think that they should have gone out with their proverbial heads held high, instead of after this miserable sequence of events...
i wonder if the bid is going to take place on e-bay
I know KaZaa Lite and eDonkey. Isn't it enough?
What's this Napster exactly? Doesn't ring any bells.
I wonder if Metallica will sign any of the memorabilia ;)
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
You should look at this like the demise of Hispano-Suiza, they were fine cars in their time but when they passed it was not quite the end of personal mobility.
And Napster won't be the last peer to peer technique that goes under, but one of these days we'll cobble something together that is *really* beyond shutdown. The only major problem so far seems to be that for the creator of that piece of software there will be no income to be made (he/she can't control access to it either).
Maybe freenet will be the one, maybe not.
But that is just one aspect of the technological war, the other one is that even a perfect peer to peer protocol / search engine is still vulnerable to all kinds of attacks by those with enough money (such as RIAA) or those with enough time on their hands (like the sicko's that try to destroy IRC) and that will probably be the next frontier,
to maintain data integrity, and to be able to search and destroy bogus clients and their malicious payloads without centralised control.
MP3 Search Engine
i made do before, during and after napster,
there was always a way to get music, and there always will be.
one strange thing is, i dont remember such horrible queing in napster, like there is in kazaa, the wait rivals that of certain extremely busy irc channels.,
I wonder if there are mp3s left in the hard disks?
from the wiping-a-single-tear-from-my-cheak dept.
Taco still can't spell. Perhaps there's going to be a spell checker up at auction. We can only hope.
I use http://lopster.sourceforge.net/ with Napigator servers.
--Roman , remove spamless. to mail me.
Knowing that the RIAA has put an end to piracy. No more downloading MP3s for us, we have to go buy our music.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
I would buy these, and sell them to people as webservers that can take even the worst slashdotting... we know that these machines were able to take the loads placed on them when they worked for Napster!!!
Yes, I know it's offtopic, but I'm trying to be funny on a Sunday morning... cut me some slack
RickTheWizKid
* All items will be sold at public auction on the date(s) specified above. You can bid via webcast or by attending the auction in person. If you CANNOT ATTEND the auction, you may place a proxy bid prior to the sale. Webcast bidding requires 1) a unique bidder number for each auction and 3) an open telephone connection with a touchtone phone. To begin, click the registration link to the right. Click here for additional help.
Good thing there's no step 2. I HATE second steps.
sig.
Yes, I hate the RIAA and it's ilk. Yes, I hate the way they have dragged their feet with online options. I hate the way they have been pushing copy-protected cd's and I hate the industry in general. I hope it does die and a bunch of smaller labels rise from the ashes - ones that don't buy the souls of the artists that help make them money.
But that doesn't excuse Napster. They were a corporation, not an activist group - they made money by helping people violate copyright. Yes, I am aware that many people used Napster to trade non-copyrighted music - but for the most part, it was all the stuff that is being sold in stores right now (right then).
And to those of you that think that we should be able to just violate copyright because we don't like the content controllers, well, then fuck the GPL, right? Let's just use someone elses work for profit there too!
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
So long and thanks for all the fish
I wonder if Shawn will sell his MP3 collection...
They made money?
Whew - sure as shit glad we dodged that bullet.
Thank god and the record industry for making the world a better place.
Napster was the major stockholder of Sun Microsystems?
Holy shit.
I understand the need for numerous servers but, I always thought this was a small operation (a dozen people). Why did they have:
"Lot# TBD-060
Hundreds of Monitor from 21in to 17in"
I'm really stunned at the amount of equipment they had...What were people doing at all those workstations, day to day?
Hey, can some of you go buy this stuff, then make a copy and give it to me for free? Thanks.
Haven't seen this mentioned yet, but last I heard Roxio is buying Napster's intellectual property. Not sure what they intend to do with it though :)
-nwp
Ok, but am I the only one who's looked at the hardware list they're selling, and wondering why the hell they have so much gear?
For God's sakes, they went belly up because they bought so much damned gear!
13 - Sun Microsystems Enterprise 420R Server With Up to 4ea 450mhz Ultra Sparc Iii Processors , 4GB Memory 72GB Of Total Storage
91 - VA Linux fullon 2230 Server Server With Up to Dual P3 800mhz 1GB 18 GB Of Total Storage
what the hell?!?
They've got more gear than Nasa, CIA, and the FBI combined.
Why would the demise of Napster make people sad? They were a corporation bent on making money facilitating the piracy of songs. Next thing you know, /. will be mourning the end of mexican gangs.
Grow up already.
Maybe they were developing a copyrighted screensaver in order switch their business from music piracy to something more legal or a pathetic attempt to diversify their business...
Achille Talon
Hop!
Just give a look on the "Equipment list" on the auction site! Seems they we're launching satellites, acting as a bank, FBI, CIA and NASA with all that equipment! :-)
Does somebody know what happens to the people who started Napster? Will they spend the rest of their life paying off their debts? Will no bank ever going to supply them credit again? Does setting up such a groundbreaking company and failing affect the rest of your life?
;)
If it does, i suggest them writing a book "The Woes of Napster - The Secrets revealed"
Dammit, EVERY startup from those times had a full regiment of Aeron chairs.
So, why don't they show in the auction ?
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
Anyway serves Napster right for breaking the "iron law of music ownership", for smoking and distributing marijuana, for aiding and abetting al Quaeda and killing those FBI agents
When I went to the auction site I noticed they had napster t-stirts for sale; I then got to wondering if napster t-shirts had become 'retro' yet (ala Win95/Atari shirts) as I hadn't seen the cat logo in a long time.
Is it just me or does the cat no longer look 'cool' but now has more sheepish, sad look to it? I think its the eyes.
Thanks.
Buy lots of 'puters now before they become illegal and install lots of encrypted partitions and readonly, chatt'red,jailed, hardened openbsd bastion box *WARRIORS* (verified exec is a nice new NetBSD feature). Use them to exchange a free culture.
Prepare for tech-WAR!
Just attempted to access the catalog for this auction, and discovered that Dove had made the pages specific to MSIE. Neither Netscape nor Mozilla will display them. No IE? Can't see the catalog. Guess I won't be bidding.
Roxio is trying to buy "substantially all" of Napster's assets which is mainly the Napster name and the IP patents Napster has. Roxio passed on the physical assets (obviously) as it didn't need them, and on just buying the company outright as it didn't want to inherit Napster's debt load or pending lawsuits. The proposed sale is for $5 million in cash and 100,000 shares ($300-$400 thousand), and needs to be approved by the Delaware bankrupcy court handling Napster's bankrupcy.
What they intend to do is "secret" until Napster is actually bought, but with a reasonable assumption or two you can figure it out. Roxio's business is computer software, and about 40% of their income used to come from OEM bundling of lite versions of the software with computers and CD-R/RW drives. When the PC market took a dive, the OEM agreements made less, but also slowed the rate at which new users were upgrading from the lite to the standard version of the software which further reduced revenue. If you look at the income they reported this last summer, it was well below expectations and at that point the stock dove from the $16-$18 range to the $3-$5 range.
Roxio needs/wants a source of income that is not tied to how often people buy new computers or CD burners. A subscription music service may just be the ticket. Remember, Roxio has agreements and contacts with all the major recording labels and even with some movie houses.
For the record, I don't work for Roxio, I just know about an eighth of the company.
(9) - SUN NETRA D130 DISK ARRAYS, with up to 36GB of Total Storage
What's that 3 disk raid?
Look at all those VA Linux servers! Over 150 of them for sale. Somebody actually did buy VA Linux products!
Or am I thinking of End of the Line?
slashdotters,
-buy whatever has a harddrive in it
-recover source code data from drive(s)
-recover email from drives for reference
-re-assemble code for backend servers
-make servers distributed instead of centralized
-re-assemble code for client app
-change name where appropriate to "retspan"
-open for biz on net under different name
-???
-Profit.
*grin
Napster the network, the service, that is. I'm connected to 11 Napster networks at this moment, thanks to the excellent Linux lopster client.
Yes, Napster *Inc*'s Napster servers no longer exist. A large number of independent servers have sprung up, however, mostly overseas where the RIAA can't get at them (particularly, for some reason, Italy). The content available is not as comprehensive as it was in Napster's heyday, but if you're looking for a piece of music, it's likely still available.
May we never see th
We are aware of actually how much money it takes to create a cd
This is more than a little misleading. You know how much it takes to burn a CD. You are ignoring the costs of production, marketing (we all hate it, but it's necessary to compete against others that market), and the fact that music is *not* fungible. When you want a CD, you don't want just any CD. You want a particular CD by a particular artist. IMHO, being "ripped off" happens when the other person misleads you about what you're getting. You *know* that you're paying a premium for a particular CD because you can only get it from one place. You aren't being "ripped off".
We know that the artists are getting ripped off, too
Sure, but you using it as a justification to pirate their music is laughable. You aren't going to do anything to drive the associated organizations out of business, you aren't sending a check to the author...you just want "free" music. Admit it.
We know that we aren't actually taking somethign physical...There is no cost to the company.
That is simply stupid. The entire concept of property is completely artifical anyway (remember the deals struck with the American Indians by settlers over land rights, which frequently the natives didn't comprehend?). To say that "intellectual property" or a potential customer has no value or legitimacy is just dumb.
And if it's worth *downloading*, why isn't it worth *paying* for?
We respect musicians
You can send them a check now. Have you?
May we never see th
I do believe it is time for a 21 download salute...
Well, I wonder if Sean Fanning ever realized what a powder-keg his idea was going to be. He was probably just trying to make his own life easier (instead of having to deal with the FTP bullshit). "Aye, Napster, we hardly knew ye!". Rest in peace.
;-)
Now, back to KaZaa, WinMX, Gnutella, and Morpheus!
Yes, you're right, all the cost should come out of Napster's pocket... oh wait, that's right, they don't have any money left! But I'm sure Dovebid would be willing to do the right thing and wait for their share of the final settlement.
I browse Slashdot at +3, Funny
Back in the late nineties when we were so easily impressed. P2P was new, and I was very impressed...
"Wow! Look at that 4kb/s transfer rate you got! Lemme guess, you got a new 56k Modem?"
Then firing up the 2X CD burner... heaven on Earth...
What makes a man want to be a mouse? (Python's Flying Circus)
Dove bid, who I buy alot of stuff from, loves to add stuff from other sales together, so buyer beware, it might not have been from napster.
well here comes more meat for fuckedcompany.com
I think of Napster as the first battle in the war of big media vs the public. Big media may have killed Napster, but the fight made tons of people aware of file sharing, and a lot of information has come out into the open about the nature and history of copyright, the relationship between people, their culture, money, and the powerful few who want it all, and the extent of corporations' leverage over our lawmakers. A lot of good will come out of this that I'm sure was completely unintended by people like Hilary Rosen and Jack Valenti. To me the Napster final auction is kind of like when people were selling bits and pieces of the Berlin wall.
/. after all!
On the other hand, I tried to post a story about the DoveBid auction when it was first announced 3 days ago, but it got rejected. See? See? It was worth space on
well, I did not set out to strawman you, and I certainly appreciate the response. I have to admit, I got myself a little worked up there.
This is no different than the current garment industry.
I think I agree. I think the only place where they differ is that stealing shoes would be actual theft. Copying music is not. One is taking a physical object away from it's owner. The other is replicating a piece of information.
Nobody used the t word. I did not say anybody was stealing. I said they were violating copyright.
This is true. You did not say theft, and I apologize that my post took that leap in logic. However, my point was more that the whole concept of copyright is kinda not very solid.
Your point about violating the GPL is very true. But I've always seen the GPL as sort of a workaround to the fact that information isn't acknowledged in it's very nature to be free. The GPL is kind of an enforced, viral freedom designed to work around the current system of information oppression.
------ What's sadder than realizing you've filtered out your own comments?
If you ever want to have a lot of fun, I recommend that you go off and program
an imbedded system. The salient characteristic of an imbedded system is that
it cannot be allowed to get into a state from which only direct intervention
will suffice to remove it. An imbedded system can't permanently trust anything
it hears from the outside world. It must sniff around, adapt, consider, sniff
around, and adapt again. I'm not talking about ordinary modular programming
carefulness here. No. Programming an imbedded system calls for undiluted
raging maniacal paranoia. For example, our ethernet front ends need to know
what network number they are on so that they can address and route PUPs
properly. How do you find out what your network number is? Easy, you ask a
gateway. Gateways are required by definition to know their correct network
numbers. Once you've got your network number, you start using it and before
you can blink you've got it wired into fifteen different sockets spread all
over creation. Now what happens when the panic-stricken operator realizes he
was running the wrong version of the gateway which was giving out the wrong
network number? Never supposed to happen. Tough. Supposing that your
software discovers that the gateway is now giving out a different network
number than before, what's it supposed to do about it? This is not discussed
in the protocol document. Never supposed to happen. Tough. I think you
get my drift.
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