Napster????

[Koolguy]

Where did THEY get one billion from?

http://www.cnn.com/2001/LAW/02/20/napster.settlement.ap/index.html

[Rodie]

From the article - "The German media giant has promised much-needed capital if Napster switches to a subscription-based service that pays artists' royalties."

I guess it's basically saying that the BMG company will supply the money to pay out the royalties to the labels.

[Vinay]

and ofcourse the money they'll get from their few million subscribers who actually decide to pay

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[Coolin]

I heard on the local news that the record companies don't like this deal and won't accept.

Anways...

Napster has argued it is not to blame for how subscribers use copyrighted material, citing a 1984 case in which the Supreme Court refused to hold VCR manufacturers and videotape retailers liable for people copying moviesNow that you think about it, Napster is being protected by the law.


But the appeals court said no such protection extends to Napster because the company knew users were swapping copyrighted songs.Didn't VCR companies know about their users using VCR's for "unlawful" purposes? It's really wierd if they don't...

[Rodie]

Originally posted by Coolin B]Didn't VCR companies know about their users using VCR's for "unlawful" purposes? It's really wierd if they don't... [/B]

I thought about that too when I first read it. But I think that the VCR companies really had no control what somebody used their VCR's for. VCR manufacturers couldn't really send somebody out to monitor



And VCR's weren't created for the wholesale piracy of video (I.E. copying commercial tapes if you had two VCR's), whereas Napster (whether we want to admit it or not) was created so people could trade commercially-copyrighted mp3's with ease.

That's probably where the hangup is.

[Koolguy]

This is what you would call a legal gray area, it is piracy but since there is no specific set of laws againt it it is hard to shut it down.

[Coolin]

Originally posted by Rodie
Napster (whether we want to admit it or not) was created so people could trade commercially-copyrighted mp3's with ease.Actually, there are many people out there who use Napster for trading parodies and jokes. Although Napster may have been created to trade copyrighted songs, people use it for legal purposes too. Many startup bands also get free publicity by trading their songs on Napster.