Word: napster
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...Napster announced an agreement with German media giant Bertelsmann Tuesday, under which the music-sharing service will begin to charge its online members, funneling some of the profits to record companies and the artists that hold copyrights on the songs...
Bertelsmann's chief executive officer, Thomas Middelhoff, said his company agreed to lend Napster a substantial amount of money to help finance the transition, and, in turn, will receive an option to buy a part of the company...
Bertelsmann officials also said they would try to convince the other litigants to cooperate with Napster...
Though details still have to be worked out, under one proposal, Napster would charge its users a $4.95 monthly...
...Using Napster is like inviting 100,000 friends over for Monday Night Football--not what the network intended, but not illegal. How can sharing music in this way be an instance of copyright infringement if the songs are used for noncommercial purposes? Perhaps Napster will eliminate money-driven junk music and encourage truly creative individuals to write and perform great music, regardless of their compensation. The whining record companies and recording artists should learn to embrace the technology or get out of the way. ROGER KRAEMER Brea, Calif...