The Napster Saga

July 10, 2000 5:29 AM

You know it baby, it's Monday so there's some fresh Napster / MP3 news. On ZDNet is another story on the legal battle between Napster and the RIAA. The RIAA has changed their tone slightly, as it was "DIE NAPSTER" at first, but now they are rather looking for a similar system, but one that obviously isn't free.

"I have to acknowledge that Napster in some ways has created a movement," she [Hilary Rosen, RIAA CEO] added. "It's probably their dilemma as much as ours because it's become a movement for free music."

Also Napster is now positioning itself as a multibillion dollar company, making it harder for the judge to just do some easy judgement as if it was a '2 guys programming in a garage' kind of deal. Also, dlrty sent word of this BetaNews news item that talks about a company which has developed an advertising system for MP3s. This can be either audio or video, depending on what the client wants. They say it already works with the current mp3 players.

Asked why a music fan would want to download an MP3 file containing advertising when copies of the music can already be downloaded without the promotional content, Brewer said he "couldn't argue," that it can be done. However, he said, payload-embedded MP3 files are "artist endorsed," and that if the listener is a true fan and wants to support the artist, than that listener will choose a licensed recording.

Maarten Goldstein

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baron calamity

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July 10, 2000 5:31 AM

If the ad plays while the file is downloading, ok. If however it plays everytime the song plays, then no way in hell anyone will put up with that.