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

Re: scriptingNews outline for 5/30/2000

Author:Jason Levine
Posted:5/30/2000; 10:50:12 AM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 5/30/2000
Msg #:17467 (In response to 17464)
Prev/Next:17466 / 17468

No, so far as I know, there isn't a question that using Napster to download and listen to music that you don't own (and, of course, that isn't released under something analogous to the GPL or otherwise free of copyright) is illegal. I'd love to read something that raises that question, though, if it exists.

(Think of it this way -- there are analogs to Napster that allow sharing any file, not just music. Is it legal for me to make available my copy of Frontier using these?)

Napster doesn't "play music over the Internet." It provides the mechanism behind a searchable distributed database from which people can download music over the Internet.

As a user, the two are remarkably different as well. I can't go to KFOG, choose the music I want to listen to, and download it so that I can listen to it at my leisure, record it to CDs, give it to friends, etc., all 100% free of royalties to the artists who created the works -- it's a radio station, I have no control over their playlist (absent the occasional request), and they write a pretty hefty check to ASCAP and the artists every month.

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