Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

scriptingNews outline for 7/12/2000

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:7/12/2000; 6:41:20 AM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 7/12/2000
Msg #:18477
Prev/Next:18476 / 18478

DaveNet: Roger McGuinn on MP3.Com.

DaveNet: Tom Matrullo on Napster.

One more time, I pay for music.

This page is such a mess. I'm not going to clean it up. That's my art for the day.

Not sure what this means, but a search on Napster for Roger McGuinn turned up nothing. Mark Staben got a lot more.

I also got an email from Gene Kan. What a day it's turning into!

Chris Neson: Microsoft's Dot-Net Strategy.

O'Reilly: C# is pronounced 'See Sharp'.

Check this out, only $115, it plays MP3 CDs, 160 songs "more or less". Much better than the Lyra, which was a $400+ experiment; 8 songs, usually less. I never use it. It comes with virusware, which you have to use. Off to the bit-bucket.

Motley Fool: Yahoo continues to dominate the Web.

Beautiful wedding pictures on 2020 Hindsight.

Why are new things frightening?

News.Com: Napster nabs major-label veteran.

BigTakeover: "We are on the cusp of the biggest technological revolution in the music industry in over 100 years."

More Tom Matrullo. He's such a great writer!

AP: Patents a real player in cyberspace. "A patent is like a hammer, you could use it to build a house or to kill someone."

Qube Quorner publishes results of a performance test between Apache and AOLserver. (Apache is faster.)

Dan Lyke wonders if the combination of Feed and Suck is going to be called Seed or.. ";->"

Senate hearing 

I watched the Senate hearing on C-SPAN last night, lots of eye-openers, notably MP3.Com's attempts to work with the music industry.

My.Mp3.Com is ingenious, a ton of hard work and money went into it, and they're selling the music we want, and preserving the system for the industry. They sued them, won, got their reparations, and they still don't want to deal with them.

(Lars Ulrich doesn't understand how Napster works.)

Hank Barry from Napster was just right, Americans love music, he says, and they're loving it more now that we have Napster. That's the big story. Charge us some money and shut up. It's interfering with the fun. What a bunch of stinkers. (Barry didn't say all that, he's a lawyer, but I did, I'm not.)

The most compelling speaker, and most understated, was Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, one of the 60s bands that started it all. He never made any money from his record deals, even though his songs topped the charts. Another artist comes out.

McGuinn likes MP3.Com, he has a folk music site, and gives away the music (presumably because it's his love) and MP3.Com gets more distribution for his music. He's glad for Napster, it's meant higher sales for him (ie non-zero) and he likes the idea that people are listening to Mr. Tamborine Man, Turn Turn Turn and Eight Miles High. (I'm listening to them right now as I write this.)

Two Senators, Hatch and Leahy, seemed to know their stuff, and Hatch esp asked tough questions of the RIAA president Hilary Rosen. My Senator, Feinstein, was stuck on the copyright issues. Very anti-Napster. Makes sense (kind of) since the music industry is big money in my state, and perhaps Feinstein is beholden to their pov.

OTOH, 20 million people use Napster now, and let's hope many of them vote in the next election. The other senators were certainly aware of the potential political power of the Napster users. Maybe this time we'll use the power.

The guy from Gnutella, Gene Kan, scares me. A riveting speaker. He's the guy Andreessen invested in. While he scared me, I recognize that he's a valuable insurance policy, should the music industry prevail in their suit with Napster.

Reuters report on the hearing.

Hearings.Com has an audio transcript of the hearing. Requires membership. Draconian process.

A flawed premise 

Over and over at the hearing I heard this idea.

If musicians don't get paid they won't make music.

How do they know that?

I don't even think it's true.

It might be true of some musicians.

I know it's not true of all.



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