Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Napster/Gnutella/FreeNet
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 22:04:20 -0400
From: "John Lyon" <jelyon () jelyon com> To: <farber () cis upenn edu> "Music industry can't outwit online outlaws" from the Boston Globe, complete article online at: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/152/nation/Music_industry_can_t_outwit_onl ine_outlaws+.shtml David Weekly wasn't amused earlier this month when Napster, the digital music-sharing service, ousted more than 300,000 users for illegally trading songs by the band Metallica. The Arlington native and Stanford University senior devised a technical solution to get around the ban and posted the instructions on his Web site. He estimates that 95 percent of the outlawed users were back on Napster within days. Weekly's quick fix is just one way savvy computer users are circumventing attempts by the entertainment industry to stop online piracy. So far, most of the attention has been focused on Napster, which is wildly popular on college campuses. But if the music industry prevails in its lawsuits against the San Mateo-based start-up, users could migrate to other commercial online trading services, like iMesh and Scour; they could also turn to underground programs that don't rely on a central server and are less vulnerable to litigation. My favorite quote from the article: ''That is not freedom of speech; that is thievery,'' says Jack Valenti, executive director of the Motion Picture Association of America. ''Wherever one snake head arises, we will cut it off,'' he adds. ''And if another one grows in its place, we'll cut that one off, too.'' My comment on that: Isn't there a mythological creature with hair of snakes, whereupon should you cut one snake off, two grow in it's place? I think that's a better analogy.
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- IP: Napster/Gnutella/FreeNet Dave Farber (May 31)