Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: Napster and Software
Author: Russell Lipton Posted: 7/12/2000; 2:36:21 PM Topic: scriptingNews outline for 7/12/2000 Msg #: 18518 (In response to 18507) Prev/Next: 18517 / 18519
I'm not trying to answer for anybody else, nor am I incredibly sophisticated on this issue. But a lot of the discussion has centered, rightly IMO, on the fuzziness of existing copyright law with respect to the Net.The music industry argues that Napster is breaking copyright but that is an argument, not an a priori fact established in law. That is precisely why the courts are getting invovled.
Napsterites argue that what they do --
a. Doesn't break copyright as currently defined legally.
b. Shouldn't have copyright law extended to it (I won't rehash the reasons here.
c. Sells more music in the long run anyway, both as CDs and performance (so it not only doesn't break legitimate copyright but is good for the traditional music business as well).
IMO, software copyright law really is apples-and-oranges to this. Like any big subject (and copyright is huge), not everything relates to everything else even within an apparently similar domain .....
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