Avast, Ye Pirates! Information longs to be free, yada yada yada … Music belongs to artists and their labels. This ruling could save the industry billions. Napster’s next!
Join the Party With or without MP3.com, the format’s here to stay. Napster racked up 9 million users in six months; America Online needed 12 years to get that many. (Fortune magazine)
Not So Fast Napster offers easy access to millions of private MP3 collections—but it doesn’t actually possess any music. Which means, say copyright lawyers, that the company might be in the clear.
Caught Napping Chop down MP3.com (or Napster), and 20 copycats sprout up in its place. Advice for the record biz: drop the lawsuits, make nice with the MP3 czars and develop foolproof watermarks—or get eight-tracked into history.
