Most of these discussions and comments seem to end up in financial issues; how expensive it is to purchase CDs, how much profit the music corporations are grabbing, how much gold the artist is wearing, so forth and so forth.
The fundamental issue here is not about money, it's about intellectual property rights. While Napster has some sound ideas behind the concept, it's also a very effective tool for raping these IP rights.
Artists have all the justification in the world to be pissed about the situation, but because they are fighting a network here. What makes it even harder on them, this network has adopted a damaging model of behavior (distributing unauthorized content without permission) and there is no alternative healthy model provided (distributing authorized content with permission). There is no easy way for people to do the Right Thing with MP3's because the music industry has largely tried to sweep the whole thing under the carpet, fearing the consequences.
This is a war that isn't lost or won on arguments based on finance. This is a war of ethics, that's why Metallica and other "opinion leaders" in the music industry are making a valid point: Violating intellectual property rights is wrong. Stealing is bad. Don't steal, ok?
We want to do business with the music industry. We want to support the artists. We want our MP3s and we want the innovation and inspiration to be rewarded.
The music industry must find a model for digital media distribution that works, a model that provides similar conveniences with all the financial and ethical bits in the right places. The way to beat Napster is to make a better Napster, and make it serve the industry that we all want to continue to do business with.
If the music industry continues to ignore the Internet and digital media, to fight it instead of working with it, they have already lost.
Any Warner-AOL/BMG/Sony guys out there? Here's a clue: HIRE the Napster guys.
(Processed my message for readability - still learning to post. Sigh.:)
The human mind - that's a pretty powerful neural networked processing unit. Now, imagine a Beowulf cluster of those!:)
The message by Joss, along with the other thoughtful comments on this highly interesting topic, made me crawl out from under the rock I had been hiding. After months of lurking on/., I'm now the proud father of my first post. Be nice to the newbie. Don't kick the baby.
I've been doing a fair bit of reading and thinking lately, reflecting on the dozen years I've spent living on the "Internet Edge". I believe it would be more appropriate to call it the Internet Dark Ages. We're living the life of the proverbial molluscs, indeed.
Anyone who thinks we're anywhere near fulfilling the potential of personal communication between individuals in a shared global network TODAY should put their crack pipe to rest. There are some models that have proven to work simply by the fact that they are alive; SlashDot on a good day is fair proof that there intelligent life can exist on the Net.
One of the fundamental needs for any person, is to find a place (in metaphysical sense) where they feel they belong. People have a genetic programming that makes them seek out other people, and it's a fact that the quality of our communication has a great impact on the quality of our lives. We hold the potential of improving the life of every person on this planet, augmenting it through the use of transparent, enabling digital technology, but it's not raw technology it really comes down to but simple human understanding. We must look for patterns that work, behavior that arises from within people and actual needs, and we must strengthen them by adapting technology to serve these ideals.
Humans haven't had any effective biological evolution in 10,000 years - we're still very well suited for running from the tigers in the jungle. While the tiger is now largely extinct, we're very adaptive beings and now possess the capability for conscious evolution of our global society. If we look back, however, to the early days of life on this planet, evolution took a giant leap when we went from single cell organisms to multi-cell organisms. The next leap is from single organism entities, into entities of multiple organisms, and like molluscs, we still dwell in the mud.
Food for thought; I'd recommend the following books to anyone interested in contemplating these topics: "Waking Up In Time" by Peter Russell, "The Evolution of Consciousness" by Robert Ornstein and "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by Weinberger et al. First book has its bias on the evolution of Mankind, the second book on the evolution of Man, and the third is a fair work on the evolution of Internet though written from the angle of business and commerce. Three books that you won't find on the same shelf, yet they are all parts of the puzzle that fit well to build a bigger picture. I'm still looking for a *really* good one on the Internet, although I just picked up "The Internet: A Philosophical Inquiry" by Gordon Graham and have yet to delve deeper into "Cyborgs@Cyberspace?" by David Haekken. Both seem very well versed thoughts on the topic and I'll be glad to share my views once I come to a verdict.
I'm a programmer, a high-school dropout, a technological evangelist and an Internet veteran of 12 years. Critisize my views, feedback is the only way to personal evolution. --
Jouni Mannonen
3D Evangelist
The human mind - that's a pretty powerful neural networked processing unit. Now, imagine a Beowulf cluster of those!:)
The message by Joss, along with the other thoughtful comments on this highly interesting topic, made me crawl out from under the rock I had been hiding. After months of lurking on/., I'm now the proud father of my first post. Be nice to the newbie. Don't kick the baby.
I've been doing a fair bit of reading and thinking lately, reflecting on the dozen years I've spent living on the "Internet Edge". I believe it would be more appropriate to call it the Internet Dark Ages. We're living the life of the proverbial molluscs, indeed.
Anyone who thinks we're anywhere near fulfilling the potential of personal communication between individuals in a shared global network TODAY should put their crack pipe to rest. There are some models that have proven to work simply by the fact that they are alive; SlashDot on a good day is fair proof that there intelligent life can exist on the Net.
One of the fundamental needs for any person, is to find a place (in metaphysical sense) where they feel they belong. People have a genetic programming that makes them seek out other people, and it's a fact that the quality of our communication has a great impact on the quality of our lives. We hold the potential of improving the life of every person on this planet, augmenting it through the use of transparent, enabling digital technology, but it's not raw technology it really comes down to but simple human understanding. We must look for patterns that work, behavior that arises from within people and actual needs, and we must strengthen them by adapting technology to serve these ideals.
Humans haven't had any effective biological evolution in 10,000 years - we're still very well suited for running from the tigers in the jungle. While the tiger is now largely extinct, we're very adaptive beings and now possess the capability for conscious evolution of our global society. If we look back, however, to the early days of life on this planet, evolution took a giant leap when we went from single cell organisms to multi-cell organisms. The next leap is from single organism entities, into entities of multiple organisms, and like molluscs, we still dwell in the mud.
Food for thought; I'd recommend the following books to anyone interested in contemplating these topics: "Waking Up In Time" by Peter Russell, "The Evolution of Consciousness" by Robert Ornstein and "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by Weinberger et al. First book has its bias on the evolution of Mankind, the second book on the evolution of Man, and the third is a fair work on the evolution of Internet though written from the angle of business and commerce. Three books that you won't find on the same shelf, yet they are all parts of the puzzle that fit well to build a bigger picture. I'm still looking for a *really* good one on the Internet, although I just picked up "The Internet: A Philosophical Inquiry" by Gordon Graham and have yet to delve deeper into "Cyborgs@Cyberspace?" by David Haekken. Both seem very well versed thoughts on the topic and I'll be glad to share my views once I come to a verdict.
I'm a programmer, a high-school dropout, a technological evangelist and an Internet veteran of 12 years. Critisize my views, feedback is the only way to personal evolution.
--
Jouni Mannonen
3D Evangelist
Slashdot Mirror
The fundamental issue here is not about money, it's about intellectual property rights. While Napster has some sound ideas behind the concept, it's also a very effective tool for raping these IP rights.
Artists have all the justification in the world to be pissed about the situation, but because they are fighting a network here. What makes it even harder on them, this network has adopted a damaging model of behavior (distributing unauthorized content without permission) and there is no alternative healthy model provided (distributing authorized content with permission). There is no easy way for people to do the Right Thing with MP3's because the music industry has largely tried to sweep the whole thing under the carpet, fearing the consequences.
This is a war that isn't lost or won on arguments based on finance. This is a war of ethics, that's why Metallica and other "opinion leaders" in the music industry are making a valid point: Violating intellectual property rights is wrong. Stealing is bad. Don't steal, ok?
We want to do business with the music industry. We want to support the artists. We want our MP3s and we want the innovation and inspiration to be rewarded.
The music industry must find a model for digital media distribution that works, a model that provides similar conveniences with all the financial and ethical bits in the right places. The way to beat Napster is to make a better Napster, and make it serve the industry that we all want to continue to do business with.
If the music industry continues to ignore the Internet and digital media, to fight it instead of working with it, they have already lost.
Any Warner-AOL/BMG/Sony guys out there? Here's a clue: HIRE the Napster guys.
--
Jouni Mannonen
3D Evangelist
The human mind - that's a pretty powerful neural networked processing unit. Now, imagine a Beowulf cluster of those! :)
The message by Joss, along with the other thoughtful comments on this highly interesting topic, made me crawl out from under the rock I had been hiding. After months of lurking on /., I'm now the proud father of my first post. Be nice to the newbie. Don't kick the baby.
I've been doing a fair bit of reading and thinking lately, reflecting on the dozen years I've spent living on the "Internet Edge". I believe it would be more appropriate to call it the Internet Dark Ages. We're living the life of the proverbial molluscs, indeed.
Anyone who thinks we're anywhere near fulfilling the potential of personal communication between individuals in a shared global network TODAY should put their crack pipe to rest. There are some models that have proven to work simply by the fact that they are alive; SlashDot on a good day is fair proof that there intelligent life can exist on the Net.
One of the fundamental needs for any person, is to find a place (in metaphysical sense) where they feel they belong. People have a genetic programming that makes them seek out other people, and it's a fact that the quality of our communication has a great impact on the quality of our lives. We hold the potential of improving the life of every person on this planet, augmenting it through the use of transparent, enabling digital technology, but it's not raw technology it really comes down to but simple human understanding. We must look for patterns that work, behavior that arises from within people and actual needs, and we must strengthen them by adapting technology to serve these ideals.
Humans haven't had any effective biological evolution in 10,000 years - we're still very well suited for running from the tigers in the jungle. While the tiger is now largely extinct, we're very adaptive beings and now possess the capability for conscious evolution of our global society. If we look back, however, to the early days of life on this planet, evolution took a giant leap when we went from single cell organisms to multi-cell organisms. The next leap is from single organism entities, into entities of multiple organisms, and like molluscs, we still dwell in the mud.
Food for thought; I'd recommend the following books to anyone interested in contemplating these topics: "Waking Up In Time" by Peter Russell, "The Evolution of Consciousness" by Robert Ornstein and "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by Weinberger et al. First book has its bias on the evolution of Mankind, the second book on the evolution of Man, and the third is a fair work on the evolution of Internet though written from the angle of business and commerce. Three books that you won't find on the same shelf, yet they are all parts of the puzzle that fit well to build a bigger picture. I'm still looking for a *really* good one on the Internet, although I just picked up "The Internet: A Philosophical Inquiry" by Gordon Graham and have yet to delve deeper into "Cyborgs@Cyberspace?" by David Haekken. Both seem very well versed thoughts on the topic and I'll be glad to share my views once I come to a verdict.
I'm a programmer, a high-school dropout, a technological evangelist and an Internet veteran of 12 years. Critisize my views, feedback is the only way to personal evolution.
--
Jouni Mannonen
3D Evangelist
The human mind - that's a pretty powerful neural networked processing unit. Now, imagine a Beowulf cluster of those! :)
The message by Joss, along with the other thoughtful comments on this highly interesting topic, made me crawl out from under the rock I had been hiding. After months of lurking on /., I'm now the proud father of my first post. Be nice to the newbie. Don't kick the baby.
I've been doing a fair bit of reading and thinking lately, reflecting on the dozen years I've spent living on the "Internet Edge". I believe it would be more appropriate to call it the Internet Dark Ages. We're living the life of the proverbial molluscs, indeed.
Anyone who thinks we're anywhere near fulfilling the potential of personal communication between individuals in a shared global network TODAY should put their crack pipe to rest. There are some models that have proven to work simply by the fact that they are alive; SlashDot on a good day is fair proof that there intelligent life can exist on the Net.
One of the fundamental needs for any person, is to find a place (in metaphysical sense) where they feel they belong. People have a genetic programming that makes them seek out other people, and it's a fact that the quality of our communication has a great impact on the quality of our lives. We hold the potential of improving the life of every person on this planet, augmenting it through the use of transparent, enabling digital technology, but it's not raw technology it really comes down to but simple human understanding. We must look for patterns that work, behavior that arises from within people and actual needs, and we must strengthen them by adapting technology to serve these ideals.
Humans haven't had any effective biological evolution in 10,000 years - we're still very well suited for running from the tigers in the jungle. While the tiger is now largely extinct, we're very adaptive beings and now possess the capability for conscious evolution of our global society. If we look back, however, to the early days of life on this planet, evolution took a giant leap when we went from single cell organisms to multi-cell organisms. The next leap is from single organism entities, into entities of multiple organisms, and like molluscs, we still dwell in the mud.
Food for thought; I'd recommend the following books to anyone interested in contemplating these topics: "Waking Up In Time" by Peter Russell, "The Evolution of Consciousness" by Robert Ornstein and "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by Weinberger et al. First book has its bias on the evolution of Mankind, the second book on the evolution of Man, and the third is a fair work on the evolution of Internet though written from the angle of business and commerce. Three books that you won't find on the same shelf, yet they are all parts of the puzzle that fit well to build a bigger picture. I'm still looking for a *really* good one on the Internet, although I just picked up "The Internet: A Philosophical Inquiry" by Gordon Graham and have yet to delve deeper into "Cyborgs@Cyberspace?" by David Haekken. Both seem very well versed thoughts on the topic and I'll be glad to share my views once I come to a verdict.
I'm a programmer, a high-school dropout, a technological evangelist and an Internet veteran of 12 years. Critisize my views, feedback is the only way to personal evolution.
--
Jouni Mannonen
3D Evangelist