20 Billion Dollars and Napster

[Bleeding Edge]

"What do they have in common," you may ask? ...Well, they are being sued.

If this has been discussed elsewhere in a different post, please accept my apologies -I haven't been around here recently. This is really last week's news but I thought I'd mention it along with the news I heard today of the first person ever to be arrested for downloading MP3s.

The folloing is a snip of the lawsuit from MP3 Newswire (http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/napster.html). The news of the arrest was related over television.

"We love the idea of using technology to build artist communities, but that's not what Napster is all about," said Cary Sherman, senior executive vice president and general counsel of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). "Napster is about facilitating piracy, and trying to build a business on the backs of artists and copyright owners."

In its suit, the RIAA is seeking damages of $100,000 for each copyright-protected song swapped to date. With over 200,000 songs available presently, that brings the suit to a surrealistic 20 billion dollars.

Napster CEO Eileen Richardson seemed caught off guard by the suit. "This came as a surprise; we've been spending so much time trying to figure out ways to work with the RIAA," said Richardson.


[This message has been edited by Bleeding Edge (edited 12-13-1999).]

[OuTpaTienT]

The first time I used Napster I thought there's no way the recording industry is going to allow this to continue if they can help it. And I can't say I disagree with them.

Remember years ago whenever a buddy got a new album and if you didn't want to go buy it yourself, you could just make a copy onto cassette. And even though we all knew that was technically illegal, nobody gave it too much thought. And you sharing music with your little circle of friends really isn't gonna kill the record industry.

But expand your circle of friends to 1,000's or even 100,000's of people and what reason is there for you to ever buy a legit recording ever again? This my friend certainly does affect the record companies and they can be real bears in copyright issues. Now that it's started, they WILL NOT let up until they've lost every appeal or until Napster no longer exist.

I think Napsters ONLY real defense (if you wanna call it that) is to release their source code to the public domain and let a thousand obscure programmers make their own "Napster's" with their own underground communities. That would be a record company's nightmare.

[Bleeding Edge]

You're quite right, Outpatient.

[OuTpaTienT]

Oh, B.Edge, do you know any more details on this individual supposedly arrested for d/l .mp3s? I'd definitely like to know more about that.

[awwall]

My $.02

I really believe the whole problem with piracy of music and software is pricing of the product. If both would price their products at a reasonable price I don't think anyone would have a problem going out a make a legit purchase.

I personally do not like laying down $15.00 to $20.00 bucks to purchase a music cd from which I might listen to 2 or 3 songs. Most that I own are like this. There are some exceptions to this, but in my case this is generally the rule.

As far as software, I believe this is the worst. Lay down couple hundred bucks for some piece of software and within 6 months rev. 1.002.003.005 is relesed and that will only cost you another $79.00 and it goes on forever. MS being one of the worst of the bunch. They like others have one of the best marketing scams ever invented. And we, like blind sheep, follow there ever move and "most" lay down their money.

And we wonder why people "pirate" software and mp3's.

aw

[Bleeding Edge]

I think Channel-9 News was on at the time. I really wasn't paying much attention. It was a student at university....

[xtant]

Does everybody remember when cd's first came out, and they were about $15 - the recording companies said they would lower the prices when production costs dropped?
I'm not saying that Napster is right, because it is illegal. I do say that if they'd only price their product a little more fairly it wouldn't be such a problem.

[OuTpaTienT]

So CD's were $15 when they came out (10+ years ago). And what do they cost today? In my experience, $12-$15. Taking inflation into account, that's pretty darn good.

[seti]

Music is a little cheaper hear in Canada....meaning $12-$15 Can. But that's for the trendy **** that is flooding the market. The stuff I like tends to be $18-$25. Is Napster wrong....no. Is it being used for "evil" yes. But so is mirc, hotline, a dozen other freeware progs, and a million websites....includeing search engines. I'm sure mp3's are the bain of the RIAA's exsistance....and it's never going to go away. (well, maybe, vqf's kick they're **** IMHO... www.vqf.com). (http://www.vqf.com).)

It's a fact, people are cheap. I don't think the RIAA will get anywhere trying to deny human nature.

I just connected to napster....wow that place is empty. Only 150gb's online, there's usually around 500-600.

[This message has been edited by seti (edited 12-14-1999).]

[welsh wizard]

I was in the UK in 84 when I purchased my now old but still good Midi from Toshiba, at that time I didn't buy any CD's for it just those big black things that no one remembers now. why because when I found out they wanted 89-00 pounds stirling I sead some rude words and walked out of the music store.
Now I can get the 1812 for under $10 NZD thats about 3.33 pounds Stirling http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif.
Prices have definatly fallen even without taking inflation into account.

BY THE WAY
Any one known how to display that fool pounds stirling symbol on a US based key board.? PLEASE http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif I used to know how but I just can't remember how.
WW

[This message has been edited by welsh wizard (edited 12-14-1999).]

[OuTpaTienT]

try holding down ALT and use the 10-key numbers to type 156.

£

also: ¥Pƒ¢¨«®¼¡«»¿ºªÆæçÇ

[Wiz]

actually, cds run about $18 now, without tax, 12-15 dollars are for cds which are on sale. An interesting add on, any major title release is sold to the record store for $12.88, and are sold for $18. $5.12 for 10 million albums, a $51,200,000 profit, for just one album. nearly 100,000,000 albums are sold every day. they are rolling in the dough, and they need no more, on the other hand, the artists are dirt poor. they get to keep about .5% of what they make. i support groups by going to concerts and buying their albums, t-shirts, mugs, etc to support them, and i suggest more people do that than just buy the album. i'm done venting.

[Groo]

I, being a musician, understand how bands and record companies feel. I know I'd be pissed if everyone was making copies of my copyrighted material. Same with software. The number one problem is ridiculous pricing. Yeah, I'm going to pay $20(cdn) for a CD I only like 1 song off and maybe kind of like a couple of others. Sure.

I do love Napster for a few reasons. For one, those really really really hard to find songs. Some examples are unplugged versions of songs I didn't know existed. Or, for instance, there's a particular band that I've been hunting down the CD for the past 10 years and I can't find it... I did find someone with it, so it got ripped. I love owning my music, but if I can't legally obtain it, what's a guy to do?

On another hand, say you want to check out what the new Metallica CD sounds like and noone you know has it... well, grab some mp3's and check it out. Then if you like it, go buy it.

[JW310]

awwall, I couldn't have said it better myself... I think the best $20 I've ever shelled out for a CD was for the Metallica S&M... I think it's the one of the few recently released CD's that's worth listening to straight through... Then there's my Pink Floyd collection, but anyways...

If u go by what the record/software companies say, it's the piracy that raises the prices. So in that case, it's just a never ending cycle, which it probably always will be!

Just my 2¢.

JW

[welsh wizard]

OuTpaTienT thanks £ yep got it now. man this mem of mine is fine on some things and total C**** on others these days, ah well I am getting there. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif
WW

[This message has been edited by welsh wizard (edited 12-15-1999).]

[shnikey]

The way I see it you can buy a movie that cost millions of dollars to make for $17-$20 on DVD. Yet a cd with a little under a hour of music costs $15, that just doesn't make sense. Also regarding napster if I did not download music I still would not buy the cd's. Most of the time I buy a cd because I liked the download.
Shnikey

[seti]

Yeah but concert tickets bring in no where near to what movie theater tickets bring in. And there's no need for mp3 to "demo" an album before buying...just about every cd can be heard in real audio legaly.

[This message has been edited by seti (edited 12-15-1999).]