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

Re: Napster Business Model

Author:Robert Cassidy
Posted:6/27/2000; 9:29:10 AM
Topic:Napster Business Model
Msg #:18166 (In response to 18147)
Prev/Next:18165 / 18167

Of course, there'll be some noise from the analog transmission, but if I just play the same song over the wire a few dozen times and then average out the results, I can reduce the damage caused by the noise.

But that's exactly my point. Enough people won't bother putting in 2 hours of work for a 3 minute song to sound good, or won't want the quality degradation. What you are getting is a slightly different product. Enough people are willing to get rid of the word 'slightly' or the time invested to keep the industry going. Hell, you've always been able to tape off of the radio, but how many of us do that as a regular practice? Think about the reasons...

But in a not-too-distant world the MP3 *is* the end product. It's not a launching-off point to the product that you trial until you make a decision. That's it. End of the road. No need to go further.

I'm not arguing the case of RIAA. I think they are idiots for introducing this problem. But we should be realistic about who they are and what their rights are. We should also be realistic about who users are and what they should be able to expect.

Every time I hear a Napster argument, I think of someone like Dave in the role of RIAA. Not that I think Dave has distanced users with his pricing and distribution methods - just the opposite. But I think about what Dave's rights are to the digital product that he produces and whether our arguments against RIAA would do a serious injustice to Dave.

If users gain the right to distribute copyrighted music, even under the justification that is for trial, that it helps the industry in the end, yadda, yadda, yadda, then in all fairness users should gain the right to distribute software (or any other copyrighted digital work) in precisely the same way for precisely the same reasons.

While I'm sure that ESR wouldn't lose sleep over that, I suspect that the people at Userland who depend on us paying for their fine products would.

So, in summary:
Does RIAA have a problem with it's customers? Yes.
Is Napster the appropriate solution? No.
Is it the only available solution? Pretty much... and that's the problem...

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