--- QueeneMUSE@aol.com wrote:
> Just out of curiosity, the legal suit by Metallica,
> was it discussed here?
I don't think so... I may have fwd'ed a few things
about it a few months ago (or maybe not, I might be
thinking of another list), but that's all AFAIK.
> What does the list think of Napster? Is ethical or
> non-ethical? Do you use it?
I use it almost every day. I can't speak for anyone
else, but in my opinion this whole thing (the
lawsuits- RIAA, Metallica, Dre, etc) is ridiculous.
Sure, there are some die-hards who will adamantly
declare "I'll never buy a CD again!", but they are
quite the relative minority, and they probably
wouldn't have bought but a few, if any, even without
Napster. And I, as well as the great majority of
people I have spoken with in Napster's chatrooms, and
the website's messageboards, agree that Napster is
only *helping* these people (artists *and* stores
*and* the RIAA), not hurting them as has been so
widely declared. I don't have the exact figures at the
moment (but could go look them up again if you want),
but I remember something along the lines of CD sales
having increased by ~9% A.N. (After Napster)! Why?
Well, at least in my case (and as I said, many of the
people I have talked to), since beginning to use
Napster, I have discovered many artists (>50) whom I
would probably have never heard of otherwise, and
either have bought one or more of their CDs already or
have them on my list of ones to buy as soon as I have
the money to; listened to songs from different CDs by
the same artist to decide which of them I'd rather
buy; and bought/want quite a few compilations of
various artists (whereas B.N. I had bought only two
compilations, which I knew already that I liked
most/all of the artists on it, so I wouldn't get stuck
with a couple good songs and a bunch I didn't like,
but now can check out the songs ahead of time). Due to
lack of harddrive space, I compress any mp3s I
download to 96kbps if they weren't already, to save
space although the sound quality isn't very good
(although I can't tell the difference between anything
96kbps or higher on my speakers, with my headphones -
the expensive ones or the cheap ones - I can barely
stand the sound quality below 192kbps, even though I
don't have room to store them like that), so I want
the CDs anyway so that I get good sound quality.
> I would imagine many here believe it ethical, but
> should it be only recording industry issue... or
> does that mean all software can also be put up for
> grabs eventually? Books? Movies? Genomes? ; - )
Personally I don't have a problem with that,
especially if/when "full nanotech" becomes widespread
enough that money/capitalism becomes unnessecary
anyway due to people not having to *pay* for stuff
anymore, just assemble it :) I don't have the time and
certainly not the knowledge to discuss this question
in detail, but I'm sure someone else will do so and so
I'll leave it to them ;)
> I am interested in thoughts on Napster. Not
> Metallica, I think they're idiots to sue their own
> fan base....
Oh, definitely. I was one of the banned (and one of
the 'lucky' few who managed to get back on ;) ), due
to one mp3 with Metallica in its name-- but it wasn't
even one off any of their albums, just a remix of one
of their songs a friend of mine did. I had even been
planning to buy their new double-album (that symphony
one, _S&M_) soon as I had enough money, when they
pulled out that lawsuit and ban stuff-- so much for
that! :) IMHO any profits they've lost have been from
that baaaad move, not from Napster itself! :)
Onward,
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:34:21 MDT