O/T RIAA Wins First Round

[paulw]

JUDGE IN NAPSTER CASE FINDS IN FAVOR OF MUSIC COMPANIES http://www.pcworld.com/cgi-bin/pcwtoday?ID=17839

Song-swapping site must remove all copyrighted music from its service
by Friday.


I guess we will the price of music CDs going up 10% next week.

[dchip]

I heard on NPR today that that site, whatever it's called, is swamped today with downloaders wanting to get their downloads before it's shut down. I think you may be right too; lacking that internet competition, prices on music CD's may take a big jump upwards. I do suspect there will be more to this fight. Many lessor known, and some fairly prominent artists want to make their work available free on the web, feeling that the exposure leads to actual sales and more people at the gate.

[Dr Mordrid]

This is so moot.

In about a week (or less) there will be another such service offshore where the U.S. courts can't get to them OR using distributed resources with no server to shut down.

What the music companies are doing is akin to standing in front of Secretariat at full gallop instead of trying to ride him....

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 28 July 2000).]

[dchip]

In fact, if the court agrees to hear an appeal, Napster itself will be around for some time. You're right though, Doc, free music is and will always be on the WEB. These guys must be getting targeted because they were decent enough to state the purpose of their webpage and probably because they're enormously popular. I stopped messing with MP3's a while back. It was eating up my hardrive and taking up a LOT of time.

[Dr Mordrid]

In our case it was eating CD-R's. Time wasn't an issue because of the cable modem.

Dr. Mordrid

[dchip]

Yes it was sloooow downloading on those MP3's. Most of the time it felt worth it when later I could hear that classic 70's rock blasting in digital clarity (despite the analog master) on my little Cambridge Soundworks. Anyhow, cable modem is still weeks away for my humble abode. Sometimes I think I need to drop everything else for now and see what the network card and linksys box does to my system resources and available slots before adding anything else.

[Dr Mordrid]

Think about using the Linksys LNE100TX Etherfast with that router. They work VERY well together. Also the Etherfast is much easier on the PCI than other NIC's I've had, even better than some other Linksys NIC's.

The Linksys router adds no load at all as the attached systems just see it as a local DNS server & 100mbps full duplex switch.

Dr. Mordrid



[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 28 July 2000).]

[dchip]

I can't wait to experience cable modem, and being sort of a security nut, the Linksys router will give me peace of mind.

Staying on the audio topic for a second, the first MP3 I ever downloaded was Don Mclean's "American Pie" that somebody had digitized with outrageously high quality settings. It was a huge file but sounded awesome on my system. I ended up losing that and about 400 other MP3's in the only hard drive failure I ever suffered in my computer life. I did not have the things backed up and CDR was not affordable for me at the time.

I never could bring myself to start over on an MP3 collection and as I was saying, the MP3 thing was taking over my life (like DV is bound to do) .. Anyway, onward and upward!

[AVATAR-X]

I would almost feel sorry for Napster users, but after seeing so many "F**K THE HATERS" posts Its hard to not think of Napster users as being idiots in general. I know, that is unfair, but I have been flamed a bunch of times for merely stating that fact that this was inevitable.

Seriously, mIRC servers are one thing. But if you start up a company, backed by venture capitalists (with millions of dollars I hear), whose purpose is to facilitate the free trade of copyrighted material your going to be sued... just give it time.

Now that is not to say that is going to stop mp3 trading, because it won't. Mp3s have been around long before Napster. Unfortunetly, I think this just gives the Mp3 format a bad name, which intern gives other digital compression/transmission methods a bad name.

Its one thing to "fight the power" but don't do something stupid like holding up a bank and saying your protesting capitalism.

[dchip]

I heard another report today that said during the same time that Napster has been flourishing, retail sales of CD's and tapes have also been increasing nicely. Napster may be, or have been, one of the best radio stations the record industry could have had. On the other hand, the advent of MP3 players of every sort, including tiny units that can go anywhere is bound to have made the recording industry quite nervous.

[Dr Mordrid]

Your radio station analogy is right on the mark. I see Napster & co. as the digital version of taping off the radio, which everyone but God has done.

I don't see the RIAA going after all the companies that make boom boxes, but from the practical standpoint it's the same thing.

Dr. Mordrid

[dchip]

The Judge agreed to hear an appeal so Napster isn't shutting down tonight. Appeal will likely be heard sometime in September.
Maybe in the meantime RIAA will figure it out and ride the digital tide instead of fighting it.

[dchip]

Doc, I ordered a mic today for my Elura. More money for Canon. Canon DM-300 Super Directional, 600ohm impedance and phantom power. Supposedly 6 times as sensitive as the internal mic. Another $99. Elura adding up now. $60 for the docking unit that feels like an empty box, ext mic, and I have to get an adapter bracket, $39, in order to really attach the mic to the camera. I love the camera but not the costly accessories.

BTW, Canon is preparing to ship the
Elura 2MC, an even smaller camera with a memory card for high res stills, a better mic and the docking unit is included now. http://www.canondv.com/elura2/index.html They also have a version of it with no memory card. To get more compact, they cut the optical zoom down from 12x to 10x. From what I can see they also have a zoom/wide-angle button now instead of the thumbwheel like mine. I do not like that thumbwheel. Its very sensitive and I find it hard to make nice slow zooms like I want.

[This message has been edited by dchip (edited 29 July 2000).]

[Dr Mordrid]

Sorry my bud didn't get back from his trip yet or I might have had another choice for 'ya.

I guess he stayed on in Minnesota for some "dear" hunting

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 29 July 2000).]

[dchip]

Sounds like he's having a nice cool break from the dog days. I have 30 days on this mic. Let me know what he uses anyway. I might trade this one in. Thanks.