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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 183 responses total. |
gelinas
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response 151 of 183:
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Jun 24 04:46 UTC 2000 |
Thing is, he's not alone. There are a couple of CDs I'd really like to
have, but I can't pay the price for them right now. Were the price to drop
to $5, I'd get them.
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otaking
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response 152 of 183:
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Jun 24 16:37 UTC 2000 |
I'd buy a lot more CDs if they were $5 each. I've seen some new releases go
for $8-10 (Tracy Bonham, Tara MacLean). Why not price other new releases in
that range?
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carla
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response 153 of 183:
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Jun 24 20:08 UTC 2000 |
yeah no doubt.
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krj
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response 154 of 183:
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Jul 15 23:43 UTC 2000 |
http://www.inside.com/story/Story_Cached/0,2770,6643_0,00.html
"Hatch Warns Labels, Don't Make Me Come Over There And Spank You"
This was the most entertaining report on this week's hearings at
the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Detroit News ran an editorial
cartoon depicting a elderly Senator asking: "So how will Napster
affect the sale of 8-track tapes?" But in all the reports I've
seen, committee chairman Orrin Hatch showed a good grasp of
both the technical and social issues. Hatch brings an interesting
perspective to this conflict, since he is a songwriter in the
Christian music business. (I had not known that.)
Hatch criticized the music industry for trying to use copyright
as an absolute control over the use of their music. He pushed for
an expansive view of fair use to cover casual sharing of recordings.
When Hilary Rosen of the RIAA objected to Hatch's views on fair use,
Hatch pointedly remarked that Congress determined what copyright was.
Hatch threatened to push for a mechanical compulsory licensing system,
for online music, similar to that for songwriting, if the music
industry does no reach "fair and reasonable" licensing agreements
with the online companies.
Hatch also complained that the inclination of the 4 major companies
to only deal with online entities which they control tended to
freeze out independent music companies and could become an antitrust
issue.
Senator Dianne Feinstein of California took the music industry position
in criticizing the Napster representative.
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krj
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response 155 of 183:
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Jul 21 19:51 UTC 2000 |
Feature story in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/07/biztech/articles/20tune.html
"Unknown Musicians Finding Payoffs Through the Internet Jukebox"
This was a front-page feature in the National print edition writing
up some of the musicians who have made a little money, or even a
lot of money, from MP3 downloads. "The Internet's emerging role
as an equal opportunity jukebox is providing new ways to make
a modest income from a relatively small base of fans."
The earnings star appears to be "Ernesto Cortazar, a 60-year-old
Mexican composer for films who has mainly performed in piano bars
and who has earned more than $100,000 from his online efforts."
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krj
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response 156 of 183:
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Jul 27 06:44 UTC 2000 |
For the record: the story is published everywhere, you should have
no trouble finding it.
Judge Marilyn Patel granted the immediate injunction sought by
the RIAA against Napster. Napster is to shut down the operations
which enable file trading by midnight Friday, Pacific time.
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krj
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response 157 of 183:
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Jul 28 07:27 UTC 2000 |
Two opposing pundit views on the aftermath of the Napster injunction:
The Washington Post says that the precedent of the Napster injunction
is a powerful tool which leaves the RIAA and copyright holders in
the driver's seat on the distribution of intellectual property on the
web. In particular, the Post author thinks even small-time operators
of Gnutella directories will be sued.
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56246-2000Jul27.html
Salon says that the RIAA has won the battle but lost the war.
Napster the company was an entity which the record labels could have
made deals with; Napster the phenomenon, as represented by the 20
million users eager to exchange free music, isn't going anywhere, and
now it will be much less controllable.
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/rose/2000/07/27/napster_shutdown/index.html
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mcnally
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response 158 of 183:
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Jul 28 19:48 UTC 2000 |
It's hard to disagree with either of those two points, except to note
that the value of the Napster injunction "precedent" isn't set in stone -
it will change once the RIAA/Napster suit is decided..
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mcnally
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response 159 of 183:
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Jul 29 03:29 UTC 2000 |
Most people will have heard this by now (at least if the news coverage
I encountered was typical) but the appeals court has issued an order
staying the Wednesday injunction which ordered Napster to shut down by
the end of the day.
To put it more plainly, it appears Napster will be allowed to operate
while the trial is conducted (unless the appeals court's ruling is itself
reversed.)
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lumen
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response 160 of 183:
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Aug 3 09:38 UTC 2000 |
I heard an NPR interview on this.. I don't remember the name of the
interviewee, but the gist of the interview is that this technology
basically cannot be stopped-- users will go elsewhere if Napster is
shut down, or they won't care much. Either way, try as they might, the
RIAA can't keep a lid on all of this issue, and it would be better if
they worked it the way other media have been treated, i.e., how the
film industry turned to video to actually *increase* their profits, and
how cable companies have worked to make legitimate subscription a real
value. Basically, the RIAA just needs to get their paws into this and
turn it to their own ends.
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mcnally
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response 161 of 183:
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Aug 3 17:24 UTC 2000 |
Interesting article at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/state/updates/lat_needle000801.htm
Apparently the music and video industires aren't the only ones terrified
about what unauthorized digital distribution is going to do to their
industry. The latest front in the raging intellectual property war is
(wait for it..): needlepoint
Apparently, overly frugal needlepoint fans are exchanging patterns with
one another [don't they know how dangerous it is to share needle(points)?]
The article reads almost, but not quite, like an Onion parody story on
the Napster issue [Onion Quotient, or OQ, of 85%] complete with quotes like:
"I'm promoting the designers," said Shawna Dooley, a 25-year-old
housewife from Alberta, Canada. "We're just sampling the
patterns. If you like one pattern, you're going to be more
likely to go out and buy a pattern by that artist next time..."
and
..paying $6 for an entire pattern book is outrageous, said Carole
Nutter, particularly if a person wants just one or two of the
dozen designs listed... "It's like the CD. There's one song you
want, but you still have to buy the whole thing," said Nutter,
54, who lives in Bellgrave, Mont., a town of 3,000. "Why can't
[the industry] let us pay for what we want, not what they want
to sell us?"
and
..designer Leavitt-Imblum has ordered her attorney to start
collecting evidence so she can sue those who exchange copies of
her patterns, people whom she describes as the "scourge of all
that is decent and right."
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mcnally
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response 162 of 183:
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Aug 7 07:33 UTC 2000 |
I finally had time to go back and read Courtney Love's music-industry
diatribe (mentioned in #99, 100, 132..) and I actually found it pretty
lucid and thought-provoking. Sure, she's a bit full of herself, but
I think this is several times in a row now that I've enjoyed reading her
opinions on music-industry issues, even if I haven't necessarily agreed
with all of them -- if nothing else, she's not afraid to be blunt..
The speech in question can be found at:
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/index.html
Could anyone with greater insight into music industry finances comment
on the numbers she spins for her financial hypothetical?
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krj
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response 163 of 183:
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Aug 8 20:46 UTC 2000 |
Napster is the cover story on the August 14 Business Week magazine.
The material is on the web at http://www.businessweek.com
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krj
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response 164 of 183:
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Aug 15 20:24 UTC 2000 |
More articles, pointed to by the news section of mp3.com:
Motley Fool has an essay on why the copyright system is doomed:
http://biz.yahoo.com/mf/000814/hill_000814.html
Quote:
"More restrictive laws ((on copying)) can't substitute for the
consent of the governed. King George tried that when the American
colonies started grumbling. In the 1920s our own government tried
it with prohibition..."
-----
Another story reports on Hewlett Packard releasing a new line of
CD-RW drives, bundled with software for creating audio CDs and
professional-looking printed graphics for the box. HP acknowledges
that Napster users are driving the CD-RW sales.
"Market analysts figure that consumer demand could be as high
as 30 to 35 million for CD-RW drives this year." HP reckons that
70-80% of the users are making audio CDs.
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krj
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response 165 of 183:
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Aug 21 23:22 UTC 2000 |
Many net news sources cover the brief Napster filed on Friday
with the appeals court. This is where the RIAA seeks to reinstate
the injunction shutting down Napster, while the company seeks a
permanent stay. It's not clear to me that Napster is going to make any
headway with calling the judge "naive." It's also not clear to me
that they will many any headway with their argument that since it is
impossible for them to distinguish between legal and illegal file
trading, therefore they must be allowed to operate.
----------
http://www.upside.com/News/39a1a15c0.html
mp3board.com is being sued for linking to illicit MP3 sites.
mp3board has now sued AOL and Time Warner; mp3board argues that AOL,
and Time Warner if the marriage comes off, should indemnify mp3board
if any of mp3board's activities with Gnutella are found to be
infringing copyrights. They argue that since Gnutella was developed
by the staff of an AOL division, that the prospective company AOL-Time-
Warner should not be able to collect damages for the use of a
product they developed.
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mcnally
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response 166 of 183:
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Aug 22 04:08 UTC 2000 |
Heh..
It's been astonishing to see the about-face AOL has done on MP3 issues
since their prospective merger with Time Warner was announced.
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krj
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response 167 of 183:
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Aug 28 23:42 UTC 2000 |
Speaking of AOL's about-face: http://www.inside.com has a piece today
on how the author of Gnutella has disappeared and seems not too happy
to have sold Winamp to AOL.
-----
News item:
http://www.inside.com/story/Story_Cached/0,2770,8823_9_12_1,00.html
MP3.com, in the copyright case over My.MP3.Com, was able to reach
settlements with all but one of the major labels. Universal held out
and so the trial now moves into a stage to determine damages.
Universal does not budge: they want billions. They want MP3.com
destroyed (KRJ interpretation) From the inside.com story:
"According to its filings, Universal is not only trying to get
even with MP3.com, but it is also seeking 'deterrence' --
that is, to send a shrill message to Napster, Scour and the like.
In one brief, Universal asks Judge Jed Rakoff to 'give notice
to other prospective Internet billionaires that violation of the
law is not an acceptable business strategy.'"
The article goes on to outline possible MP3.com legal defense
strategies.
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krj
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response 168 of 183:
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Aug 31 15:12 UTC 2000 |
News item:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,38525,00.html
"17 out of 50 US colleges and universities polled have banned
students from using Napster's song-swap service on their
campuses, said a report released on Wednesday by research firm
Gartner Group Inc.
...
"'I would not want to be the university president who neglected
to update the school policy regarding music downloads this year,'
said Robert Labatt, principal analyst for Gartner's e-Business
Services group. 'Long legal battles can be costly, and one
school could easily be singled out to set legal precedent
this year.'"
Napster's next court date in the Court of Appeals is
the week of October 2.
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krj
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response 169 of 183:
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Sep 7 04:26 UTC 2000 |
Continuing from resp:167 :: Wired, and most other media, report that the
court has found that mp3.com's infringements of the Universal
Music copyrights was "willful," and it set damages at $25,000
per CD copied into the MyMp3.Com service. Wired guesstimates
the total bill at around $118 million, which is not enough to
put mp3.com out of business.
mp3.com plans to continue challenges to some of the Universal
copyrights.
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krj
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response 170 of 183:
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Sep 7 04:53 UTC 2000 |
www.inside.com says that the number of CDs which were infringed
is not determined. mp3.com says 4700 which yields the $118 million
figure; Universal claims 10,000 which puts the damages closer to
$250,000,000.
In general the www.inside.com piece is much more pessimistic about
mp3.com's survival.
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richard
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response 171 of 183:
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Sep 7 04:58 UTC 2000 |
mp3.com's stock will tank bigtime tomorrow
they wont survive on their own, will need to get bought out
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krj
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response 172 of 183:
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Sep 15 03:28 UTC 2000 |
(( FW note: I've linked in the two lengthy Napster items from
the Agora conference, now that Summer's Agora is winding down.
I intend to keep most of the news updates on the legal war
in this item. ))
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krj
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response 173 of 183:
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Oct 9 20:54 UTC 2000 |
Lengthy interview with Napster's lead attorney David Boies, in which
he lays out Napster's four main legal arguments:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.10/boies.html
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krj
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response 174 of 183:
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Oct 11 02:28 UTC 2000 |
http://www.upside.com runs an interesting rumor that two unnamed
ISPs are interested in buying Napster. The idea is that the Napster
server would only be available to customers of the purchasing ISP.
With Napster incorporated as "bait" into a profitable company,
there would be some money to try to cut a deal with the record
industry.
No such sale can happen unless a deal can be cut with the record industry,
and the RIAA seems awfully determined not to make any deals.
|
orinoco
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response 175 of 183:
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Oct 11 21:36 UTC 2000 |
Interesting. And it would be doubly interesting to see how much damage a
"cover charge" like that would do to the size of Napster's user base.
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