Salon: Victory in Napster Case Dooms Recording Industry as We Know It
Dave Aiello wrote, "I have never used Napster, so I have to admit that I have some catching up to do with the people who have used it and understand the implications more fully. Scott Rosenberg wrote an excellent piece in Salon that points out a number of issues that will quickly come to the forefront now that it looks like the RIAA will succeed in shutting most of Napster down." Among other things, it says:
- Napster might be preferable to anarchy because the RIAA could have cut a deal with the Napster company instead of demonizing it.
- The centralized directory of mp3 files that Napster represents will likely give way to a massive web of peer-to-peer file sharing systems that will make intellectual property rights that much harder to enforce.
- The Wall Street Journal got it wrong in their Napster article earlier in the week because they chose to focus on the Napster company's arguably hypocritical stance on its own intellectual property.
Dave Aiello continues, "I agree that the RIAA members are slowly killing themselves by trying to shut down the small number of servers owned by the Napster company. They need to think outside the box they have placed themselves in, and figure out ways to rehabilitate their relationships with their customers and the artists that they collectively have under contract. The answer to the recording industry's problems will not be found by shooting the messenger."