O.J. Simpson Rides Again
Jul 10 '00
Napster, blah, blah, blah. RIAA, blah, blah, blah. Metallica, blah, Dr. Dre, blah, blah.
I really don't give two short tail-wags about the whole mess anymore. C'mon. It's getting old, pointless, and the incessant droning on about it is just wearing on my nerves.
1. Who's fault is it? The real culprit in the Metallica case wasn't Napster. That's right. Someone in the "Metallica Machine" leaked out a pre-release version of "I Disappear" before it was available to the public. It worked its way onto someone who had access to the Napster ftp engine. "Ooh, a new Metallica song!" thousands of eager youth reply, suddenly finding it available for mass download. Boom. Suddenly it's everywhere. Somehow Metallica finds out. (Probably surfing Napster for old Devo tracks or something.) "Hey, we can't have this going on," someone says. Enter the lawyers. And all because of a song that really isn't terribly exciting as far as Metallica goes.
2. Who gets in trouble? "Hey! Napster is distributing our stuff for free! They need to pay just like everyone else." Well, let's be honest. Napster probably started just like the internet - a couple of guys who wanted to share information between their computers. They designed a system for doing just that, and pretty soon other people were banging on their door to be able to do the same thing. Suddenly everybody's using it, and the Napster name becomes synonymous with its user base. Who's to blame here? Well, there are too many users to take on, let's go for the ringleader.
Personally, I use Napster because of my cassette tape collection. I've got a good 150+ tapes that I still listen to on a fairly regular basis in my car, but if I want to take them to work (where we only have the PC for playing music), I've got to spend the hour or so hooking up a tape deck to my PC, recording and editing the songs as waves, then converting the whole mess to MP3. I've become pretty good at doing this, but it's still quicker if I can find the songs on Napster and download 'em. Is that so wrong? I'm not stealing music I haven't already paid for.
3. And in this corner... So. On the one side, we have the music industry. "Napster is a evil, evil program because they distribute music to the world. That's our job." Never mind that the majority of people behind the RIAA have neglected the need to be innovative with their distribution methods. And on the other side, we have Napster. "We didn't do anything wrong. People who use our software broke our rules and used it illegally. Go get them." And all the while they fail to see the possibilities in promoting artists that aren't on major labels through their service until only recently. Rant, rant, rant. Both sides are squared off and firmly of the opinion that it's not their fault.
4. What do I care? In a classic and totally predictable move, last week Napster filed a counter-suit against the RIAA for slander and false prosecution. What's really going to happen? In true legal format, the arguement will draw out for years, and neither side will end up winning. The march of technology will pass them both by, and while they're still bickering, something newer and better will come along and pass up them both. And I'll be left watching even more sensational drivel on the evening news that rivals OJ, Princess Di, JFK Jr., the Microsoft fiasco and that Elian kid. You know, I thought it was important when I first heard about it, but after a while I just want it to go away. Let's agree that this is ridiculously overplayed, settle our differences and move on to the next bit.
5. Is there a solution? No, and there never will be. Not one that appeases both sides. What people need to realize is that the two sides need to come to an agreement and work together before anyone will really benefit from this arguement. There are plenty of other sites that blend both traditional music releases and the MP3 phenomenon with exceptional results.
Take for example emusic.com: One of my favorite bands is They Might Be Giants. Their last two albums (Long Tall Weekend and Working Undercover for the Man) are available in MP3 format only. You visit emusic and look up TMBG. You can buy a single song for $0.99, or the entire album for $8.99. You can then download it right then and there, complete with liner notes and everything. It saves you the trip to the store, you get your music instantly, and you can burn your favorite tracks to CD while skipping ones you don't like.
Both sides just need to give up and reach an agreement. I'm sick to death of the whole thing, and nothing either side has to say anymore is going to make me stop buying CDs or downloading MP3s. That's my two cents worth, and thanks for the penny for having to sit through it.
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Epinions.com ID:
splats
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Location: Duluth, MN
Reviews written: 29
Trusted by: 11 members
About Me:
May also be known as "Hig Hirtenflurst" or "Wett Paynt" in other online communities.
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