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

Re: Napster ordered to be shut down

Author:Eric J. Bowersox
Posted:7/26/2000; 10:23:22 PM
Topic:Napster ordered to be shut down
Msg #:19160 (In response to 19150)
Prev/Next:19159 / 19161

There's a quote from Robert Heinlein's story "Life-Line" that I've been carrying around in my Palm for awhile now:

"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back."

Oh, if only the judge in the Napster case had had the cojones to make a speech like that from the bench...but, apparently, the RIAA does have the right, under our present judiciary system, to ask the court to stop the clock of history, and turn it back.

But, in the end, it won't work. All the RIAA will have succeeded in doing is driving the trading of MP3s further underground. We're already starting to see this with OpenNAP, Gnutella, and Freenet...and don't forget that MP3s can be passed around by cruder means as well, such as via Usenet posts, instant messaging systems, peer-to-peer HTTP, peer-to-peer FTP, and even email (well, for really short MP3s anyway). New methods will be developed as well, incorporating more and more sophisticated techniques. The RIAA will never be able to stop it all, short of dismantling the entire Internet...and they may have permanently forfeited any hope of being able to profit from online music distribution.

They may be gloating now about having won this round of this battle. But, even if they eventually prevail in this battle, the war will likely prove impossible for them to win.

Eric

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