Word: napstered
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...been waiting for years for a guilt-free Napster, the pioneering music-sharing service that shut down in 2001 after losing a legal battle over its role in distributing copyrighted songs...
...Barnes never dreamed that the long arm of the music industry would reach into his personal computer. Sure, the bus operator from Fresno, Calif., had used Napster to grab music files off the Internet. And when that file-swapping service was put out of business, he switched to its most popular successor, Kazaa. But he was careful not to leave a trace, transferring all his downloaded songs to separate discs. A visiting teenage grandson wasn't so careful, however, and last week Barnes, 50, was slapped with a subpoena from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It alleged that...
This isn't how it was supposed to be. A little more than three years ago the Recording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.), which represents most U.S. record labels, filed suit against Napster, the granddaddy of file-sharing services, for "contributory and vicarious copyright infringement." The R.I.A.A. won; Napster lost. A judge ordered its servers shut down. End of story...
Hardly. The file-sharing services didn't go away. They evolved, getting smarter and more decentralized and harder to shut down. Napster's network relied on a central server, an Achilles' heel that made it easier to unplug and shut down. But Kazaa, now the most popular file-sharing software, is built around a floating, distributed network of individual PCs that has no center. There's no single plug to pull. Kazaa has savvily chosen a decentralized business strategy too: it's a mirage of complicated partnerships with the official owner, Sharman Networks, tucked away on the South Pacific island...
...that otherwise honest folks blithely steal music? For me, it started with Napster. I was desperate to hear an old Loudon Wainwright III tune that hadn't yet been rereleased on CD. I found it one day online--someone had converted the entire record into MP3s and kindly uploaded the songs. I downloaded the tune and then helped myself to a rare Duane Allman rendition of Please Be with Me. I had begun my descent into hell, or wherever it is that music pilferers go at the Final Download. I'd have been thrilled to pay for them, I rationalized...