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A Post Mortem on Napster
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 05:27:10 -0400
A Post Mortem on Napster April 27, 2003 By MATT RICHTEL IN the Internet boom, Shawn Fanning became a symbol of an era. Mr. Fanning, the wunderkind hacker, was just a college student when he devised Napster, which enraged the recording industry by letting tens of millions of people download music free over the Internet. It quickly made him synonymous with the Internet youth movement. But in "All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's Napster" (Crown, $25), Mr. Fanning comes across as relatively mature compared with investors and managers whose greed and delusions of grandeur are blamed for hastening the company's demise, if not causing it. Generally, the book, by Joseph Menn, provides a well-documented history of one of the most celebrated collapses of the Internet. But it goes far deeper, giving an inside account of the creation of Napster, the battle for its control and the maneuvering by big Silicon Valley names to try to turn music piracy into gold. The issue is particularly acute because the Bush administration this month sided with the recording industry in its court battle to force Napster's surviving rivals to disclose the identities of subscribers who may be illegally trading copyrighted material online. The book suggests that much of the blame for Napster's struggles lies at the feet of Mr. Fanning's uncle, John Fanning. Portrayed as a mercurial entrepreneur who had unrealistic expectations for Napster's value, he initially held a 70 percent stake in the company. The book argues convincingly that - in an effort to retain his board seat - he used a controlling position to scuttle deals that would have brought Napster powerful backing, enriched its early investors and potentially turned it into a legitimate business. Conversely, the book sympathetically portrays Shawn Fanning as relatively thoughtful and cerebral and swept up by forces bigger then himself. It reports that he would admonish older managers at Napster for bickering among themselves. But Mr. Menn at times seems overly taken with Shawn Fanning as a good - if not innocuous - guy, glossing over his role in creating software of dubious legality. Others in management are portrayed as vastly overestimating Napster's value and underestimating its legal troubles. (Napster was ultimately driven from business after being sued by the recording industry for abetting copyright infringement.) But managers are portrayed as ignoring the consistent decline in Napster's potential and fortunes - and, in turn, as failing to find potentially viable solutions. The book includes a great deal of compelling reporting and many insightful anecdotes. It shows how Napster made behind-the-scenes payments to some musicians to promote the service, even as many recording artists were condemning Napster as leading to the theft of their intellectual property. It also gives a fascinating account of how some of Silicon Valley's top venture capital firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, came close to backing Napster. The book does not satisfactorily answer whether Napster might have collapsed even without poor decision-making by management and investors. It also underestimates the recording industry's determination to stop Napster. Another question is how willing readers will be to revisit the Napster debacle. The story provides a great inside chronicle but doesn't convincingly underscore how Napster represented a microcosm of the technology boom or offer broader lessons about the Internet gold rush.?? http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/27/business/yourmoney/27ADDE.html?ex=10524353 97&ei=1&en=aa6b631f063a7fa4 HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales () nytimes com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help () nytimes com. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company ------ End of Forwarded Message ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- A Post Mortem on Napster Dave Farber (Apr 27)