First, I think it's a bit of a stretch to claim that this conduit ruling is equivalent to saying that ISP's, etc., are responsible for content and traffic. I don't know of any ISP's that limit content to mp3's, or any other media. I think it is naive and ignorant to believe that Napster was ever intended purely to help "researchers" and "independent artists." The point here is that Napster, in their own copyright policy (excerpt below), claims to support commercial artists and their property rights but has never taken action against violating users. From Napster's Copyright Policy:
As a condition to your account with Napster, you agree that you will not use the Napster service to infringe the intellectual property rights of others in any way. Napster will terminate the accounts of users who are repeat infringers of the copyrights, or other intellectual property rights, of others.
Second, isn't the old racketeering/price-fixing argument against the RIAA getting a bit old? A quick skim of any intro economics text diffuses that wit a quickness. Supply and demand anyone? Anyone? Sure CD production costs are lower than cassettes, but they sure are selling well. You really think those tennis shoes cost $75 to make? An artist is free to charge as much as they want for their music. Demand, however, controls how much they can charge and still expect to make a buck. If I want a CD badly enough, I might just be willing to pay $50 for it.
IANALEorM (I am not a lawyer, economist, or musician)
That brings back some memories. Windows 2.11 (or was it just called 2.1?) was pretty responsive, even on my 286. 10Mhz and 1Meg of raw power. Didn't eat up too much space on my 20Meg hard drive either. Never had any problems with bugs as I recall. Although, back then MS wasn't trying to hide the fact that Windows was just a GUI shell sitting on top of DOS.
What about the non-academic elements of college? Several people have mentioned that college is also about the art of learning. More importantly, college helps people reach a better understanding of themselves and life. Its not just a cliche, it happens. Before college I was only fooling myself when I thought I was open minded. Life isn't about money, and college is an important step in figuring out how the intangibles fit into your life.
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IANALEorM (I am not a lawyer, economist, or musician)
That brings back some memories. Windows 2.11 (or was it just called 2.1?) was pretty responsive, even on my 286. 10Mhz and 1Meg of raw power. Didn't eat up too much space on my 20Meg hard drive either. Never had any problems with bugs as I recall. Although, back then MS wasn't trying to hide the fact that Windows was just a GUI shell sitting on top of DOS.
What about the non-academic elements of college? Several people have mentioned that college is also about the art of learning. More importantly, college helps people reach a better understanding of themselves and life. Its not just a cliche, it happens. Before college I was only fooling myself when I thought I was open minded. Life isn't about money, and college is an important step in figuring out how the intangibles fit into your life.