How to circumnavigate the Napster ruling
Jul 26 '00 (Updated Jul 28 '00)
I have created this post solely to aid those who wish to continue to use Napster after Friday the 28th of July, 2000. This review does not share my opinion on the RIAA vs Napster trial, nor does it review Napster. Those issues will be left for other reviews.
News flash: apparently things are being delayed, and Napster will not, after all, be shut down this Friday, as they are to appeal. It will invariably be in the near-future, however, so this advice remains pertinent. Heck, I've followed this advice since about March, anyway.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls:
The worst has happened. Napster has been shut down.
Effective midnight on Friday the 28th of July, 2000, Napster will be forced to shut down its servers and thus cut off the millions of people using its services until another trial is made later this year.
Does this mean no more using Napster?
Hell no.
In essence, when U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel issued the mandate today, Wednesday the 26th, to shut down Napster, the only thing that she did was make Napster shut down its SERVERS. Allow me to explain. The next paragraph, if you care, outlines how Napster basically works, and how the Napster community has long ago worked its way around it in anticipation of this move by the government.
The Inner Workings of Napster for Dummies
Napster Music community consists of about 40 separate servers. The software program that you download for free off of their site, http://www.napster.com/ , allows you to access these servers. When you attempt to connect to Napster, it scans the 40 servers and logs you onto the one that has the least amount of traffic (people logged on to it) at that specific point in time. This, frustratingly enough, also means that it is nearly impossible to be logged onto the same server as say, your friend Bob. You cannot decide what server you log onto; it decides for you.
However:
Several months ago there was a separate third-party program created by one Chad Boyda dubbed "Napigator." Napigator allows you to not only choose what Napster server you log onto, but also allows you to choose from a multitude of 3rd-party servers created and maintained by Napster fans. In total, counting the 40 Napster-owned servers, there are over 140 SERVERS TO LOG ON TO.
When Napster's servers shut down on Friday, there's no need to fret. Download Napigator from one of several accessible sites across the 'net, and use it to your advantage. You see, while the Napster servers may be shut down, the software is still usable. There's no "self-destruct" command, per-se. Load up Napigator, and start it up- it will automatically give you the listing of the 3rd-party Napster servers online at the moment, along with the number of users on the server, number of songs, total size of files, and ping time. Double-click, and you're set to go. That's it- there's no magic to it. Doing this, we will be able to use Napster continuously, no matter what some uppity judge in San Francisco might say to the contrary.
What will happen when these 3rd-party servers are shut down, as well? Quite frankly, with every server that is shut down, three more will spring up to take its place. There will be a never-ending, continuous resupply of servers to log onto, and like the Napster software, they can't take the Napigator software away from us. The government has severely underestimated the power of the internet and how it is wielded- there will be no end. It's like rolling a tiny snowball down a hill in winter: by the time they try to stop it, it's already turned into an avalanche.
Thank you for reading this. I hope that if the ruling effected you, this will have helped.
To those of you who have personal qualms against using Napster: that's another issue entirely. If this is the case, Email me. I'm open to discussion.
Later, all.
-JTroll
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JTroll
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Member: JT
Location: Bay Area, California
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