Despite the fact that all of what you said is true, does it make you feel better at night? Stealing is Stealing no matter what justification you throw up around it.
I think Napster itself is going to die a slow and drawn out death because as was mentioned in an earlier post, it was an easy target. I do aree with you in that alternatives will pop up and the RIAA will never be able to shut them down. In fact, I think Napster commited suicide. By trying to buck the system rather then working with it they signed their own death warrant. If they had simply organzed with RIAA and suggested ways to work with them rather then against them, they might still be active.
A good solution I think to the issue of "previewing" songs might be just to limit the quality at which MP3's of ccopyrighted material can be recorded at. Perhaps make high quality digital copies illegal but low quality (something similar to tape quality) legal for reviewing purposes. That way, people would still have an incentive to purchase the high quality CD recording of the song. It wouldn't be too hard to add a functionality to napster that checks the recording quality of an MP3 before it allows a file transfer. Of course....I'm sure some hacker would figure out a way to work around it but don't they allawys ??;)
I've heard this arguement many times and while you and otehr might actually use napster's services to preview music before they buy.....I would wager that most DON'T. Why buy the CD when you can download entire albums off the net, and burn them to CD or record them to tape. The only real issue is quality and the only people I've spoken too that can notice a quality difference are the hardcore audiophiles with systems that cost such obscene amounts of money I had to take a cold shower after looking at it. Plus, I can't really blame stores for not taking CD's back. A game a friend of mine used to play when a local CD store had a 30 day return policy was buy CD, burn it, return it. He did it 5 times before they started recognizing him;)
You have some good points. While trying to avoid getting into a deep discussion of economics, I'd be interested to hear what your opinion on intellectual properties and the whole napster thing are. From your "socialist" perspective is napster in the wrong? Additionally, I just would like to say that nothing is black and white. Everything is grey....too much Free Market leads to the cyberpunk mega-corp nightmare whereas too much socialism leads to communism and over governmental control. I think there is a happy medium which the U.S. has been able to bounce around from one extreme to the other throughout our history.
Whoes more guilty? The teenager who shoots up a schoolyard or the moron who handed a loaded weapon to an emotionally unstable teenager. It all depends on how you look at it. Napster is guilty of negligence...The negligence of policing its own service to ensure that it was not being used for illegal practices. That an napster has been extremely arrogant about this hole thing, hoping their techo-savy and jargon would sttun and amaze the judge...I think napster deserves what they got. They had a chance to change things and blew it.
I agree with you in one sense. I think the record comapanies do jerk around the artists. But at the same time I think that in the past and still currently to a point, the Record Companies are a necessary evil that every group must face in order to get their music heard all over the U.S. The technology is just now starting to surface that will allow groups to avoid the record labels and distribute their music through internet channels. But this does NOT give you some divine right to steal that music which is copyrighted, whether that copyright be held by an independent artist or one which has ties to a record label. You can tell me you or your average Napsterite would think any differently pirating a song from a group that payed for their own distribution and sold CD's they manufactured with their own money as pirating a song from a group that got financial backing from a record label. At the heart of all these arguements is the fact that Napsterites are pissed that their main source of free music is gone.
Gun owners would argue that other purposes exist such as target shooting and hunting. Personally...I think guns should be licensed just like cars. Guns are infinitely more dangerous. I think people have the right to certain weapons, but it should be monitored and tracked for the safety of everyone. Then we might not end up with 13 year olds shooting up a school with a rifle he bought at a gun show. At the same time, napster does have "theoretical" other uses, but no one can argue what its really being used for. Napster has a right to exist, but they are doing nothing to traffic its content and no matter what they tell you...I guarantee you it IS possible. They just know no one would use it for legal activities.
Just siting an example from history...or saying something should be someway...doesn't make it right...or that someone has to do it that way if they don't want to.
Come on now....You can't tell me anyone uses napster for any serious reasons other then for pirating copyrighted material...and all teh uproar about "what about teh independent artists!!". Compare napsters success to mp3.com's. MP3.COM deals only in non-copyrighted material...are they as successful? I think not. Your Road analogy by the way is foolish. Drug paraphanalia is illegal, and no one challenges that do they?
Alright so let's say RIAA starts losing money....who do you think is going to get screwed over first to make up lost revenue...wait...wait...I can hear the gears churning...YES THE MUSCIANS!
Hey guys, I was thinking about this...everyones bitching about anti-corporate this and anti-corporate that....Well, they was I see it...corporations are the natural result of a free market economy like we have in the United States. You can't have a functioning, profitable, and developing free market economy that doesn't result in large business oriented organization being created. Sure they can be A-holes sometimes but really, the free market economy is what has led America to have the strongest economy in the world. Besides....If you're Anti-Corporate what are you then? Communist???? Anarchist??? You either enjoy the comforts Corporations and the freemarket economy provide you along with all its bad aspects or you are a Communist or an Anarchist. You can't walk the wire.
Because he warps the facts using nice sounding words and oversimplified analogies to warp people's opinions, as well as taking legalease out of context. Come on...do you really think Thomas Jefferson had any concept of music and intellectual property distribution when the closest thing to a recorded medium was a piece of parchment and a feather pen???
Theres a big difference between a single taped copy of a friends tape...or even 25 copies....To a service that serves a copy to several tens of thousand...even hundreds of thousands...even dare I say...a million people. There is an obvious scale issue here.
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Despite the fact that all of what you said is true, does it make you feel better at night? Stealing is Stealing no matter what justification you throw up around it.
I think Napster itself is going to die a slow and drawn out death because as was mentioned in an earlier post, it was an easy target. I do aree with you in that alternatives will pop up and the RIAA will never be able to shut them down. In fact, I think Napster commited suicide. By trying to buck the system rather then working with it they signed their own death warrant. If they had simply organzed with RIAA and suggested ways to work with them rather then against them, they might still be active.
A good solution I think to the issue of "previewing" songs might be just to limit the quality at which MP3's of ccopyrighted material can be recorded at. Perhaps make high quality digital copies illegal but low quality (something similar to tape quality) legal for reviewing purposes. That way, people would still have an incentive to purchase the high quality CD recording of the song. It wouldn't be too hard to add a functionality to napster that checks the recording quality of an MP3 before it allows a file transfer. Of course....I'm sure some hacker would figure out a way to work around it but don't they allawys ?? ;)
I've heard this arguement many times and while you and otehr might actually use napster's services to preview music before they buy.....I would wager that most DON'T. Why buy the CD when you can download entire albums off the net, and burn them to CD or record them to tape. The only real issue is quality and the only people I've spoken too that can notice a quality difference are the hardcore audiophiles with systems that cost such obscene amounts of money I had to take a cold shower after looking at it. Plus, I can't really blame stores for not taking CD's back. A game a friend of mine used to play when a local CD store had a 30 day return policy was buy CD, burn it, return it. He did it 5 times before they started recognizing him ;)
You have some good points. While trying to avoid getting into a deep discussion of economics, I'd be interested to hear what your opinion on intellectual properties and the whole napster thing are. From your "socialist" perspective is napster in the wrong? Additionally, I just would like to say that nothing is black and white. Everything is grey....too much Free Market leads to the cyberpunk mega-corp nightmare whereas too much socialism leads to communism and over governmental control. I think there is a happy medium which the U.S. has been able to bounce around from one extreme to the other throughout our history.
Whoes more guilty? The teenager who shoots up a schoolyard or the moron who handed a loaded weapon to an emotionally unstable teenager. It all depends on how you look at it. Napster is guilty of negligence...The negligence of policing its own service to ensure that it was not being used for illegal practices. That an napster has been extremely arrogant about this hole thing, hoping their techo-savy and jargon would sttun and amaze the judge...I think napster deserves what they got. They had a chance to change things and blew it.
I agree with you in one sense. I think the record comapanies do jerk around the artists. But at the same time I think that in the past and still currently to a point, the Record Companies are a necessary evil that every group must face in order to get their music heard all over the U.S. The technology is just now starting to surface that will allow groups to avoid the record labels and distribute their music through internet channels. But this does NOT give you some divine right to steal that music which is copyrighted, whether that copyright be held by an independent artist or one which has ties to a record label. You can tell me you or your average Napsterite would think any differently pirating a song from a group that payed for their own distribution and sold CD's they manufactured with their own money as pirating a song from a group that got financial backing from a record label. At the heart of all these arguements is the fact that Napsterites are pissed that their main source of free music is gone.
Gun owners would argue that other purposes exist such as target shooting and hunting. Personally...I think guns should be licensed just like cars. Guns are infinitely more dangerous. I think people have the right to certain weapons, but it should be monitored and tracked for the safety of everyone. Then we might not end up with 13 year olds shooting up a school with a rifle he bought at a gun show. At the same time, napster does have "theoretical" other uses, but no one can argue what its really being used for. Napster has a right to exist, but they are doing nothing to traffic its content and no matter what they tell you...I guarantee you it IS possible. They just know no one would use it for legal activities.
Just siting an example from history...or saying something should be someway...doesn't make it right...or that someone has to do it that way if they don't want to.
Come on now....You can't tell me anyone uses napster for any serious reasons other then for pirating copyrighted material...and all teh uproar about "what about teh independent artists!!". Compare napsters success to mp3.com's. MP3.COM deals only in non-copyrighted material...are they as successful? I think not. Your Road analogy by the way is foolish. Drug paraphanalia is illegal, and no one challenges that do they?
PReach it brother....Right on!
Alright so let's say RIAA starts losing money....who do you think is going to get screwed over first to make up lost revenue ...wait...wait...I can hear the gears churning...YES THE MUSCIANS!
Hey guys, I was thinking about this...everyones bitching about anti-corporate this and anti-corporate that....Well, they was I see it...corporations are the natural result of a free market economy like we have in the United States. You can't have a functioning, profitable, and developing free market economy that doesn't result in large business oriented organization being created. Sure they can be A-holes sometimes but really, the free market economy is what has led America to have the strongest economy in the world. Besides....If you're Anti-Corporate what are you then? Communist???? Anarchist??? You either enjoy the comforts Corporations and the freemarket economy provide you along with all its bad aspects or you are a Communist or an Anarchist. You can't walk the wire.
Because he warps the facts using nice sounding words and oversimplified analogies to warp people's opinions, as well as taking legalease out of context. Come on...do you really think Thomas Jefferson had any concept of music and intellectual property distribution when the closest thing to a recorded medium was a piece of parchment and a feather pen???
Theres a big difference between a single taped copy of a friends tape...or even 25 copies....To a service that serves a copy to several tens of thousand...even hundreds of thousands...even dare I say...a million people. There is an obvious scale issue here.