IP: Napster hypocrisy

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: John Shoch <shoch () alloyventures com>
> To: "Dave Farber (E-mail)" <dave () farber net>
>
> Dave,
>
> For your amusement -- an item from today's WSJ, with an ironic bit of
> hypocrisy from Napster:
>
> <begin>
> On the Chin
>
> Napster's founder Shawn Fanning took it on the chin at a pro-Napster
> conference in Washington, D.C., the night before this week's Senate hearing
> where Napster, the recording industry, and recording artists like Don Henley
> and Alanis Morissette aired their grievances before lawmakers.
>
> Mr. Fanning, 20 years old, took the hit over his company's efforts to
> protect its copyrights: its software code. A programmer in the audience
> demanded to know why Napster's "source code" for its software wasn't freely
> available. "That's a great question," Mr. Fanning stammered, "and one I was
> hoping you wouldn't ask."
>
> His answer: "Once the [Napster] user base grew ... we had to raise money to
> pay for bandwidth and for servers, and it became a business issue."
>
> <end>
>
> So, we finally can understand Napster's business plan:  "I can help other
> people steal copyrighted material from you, but you can't steal copyrighted
> material from me....."



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