Music Sharing and the Napster Lawsuit

November 01, 2000

Is music sharing a technological triumph, or is it merely a tool to permit rampant music piracy and deprive artists of income? Read what Dwight Silverman, technology reporter and columnist for the Houston Chronicle, had to say about online music sharing and the Napster lawsuit.

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Houston Chronicle: The information discussed today is provided for information purposes only. Welcome to a discussion on Music sharing on the Internet. HoustonChronicle.com is proud to present a discussion with Dwight Silverman. Welcome Dwight!

Dwight Silverman: Thanks, glad to be here! And I'm sorry about not making it last week. For anyone who was waiting around, my apologies!

Jessie Girl: What are you feelings about the court decision against Napster?

Dwight Silverman: Right now, the decision has been stayed because an appeals court wanted to look at the issues. I think the appeals court did the right thing. The district court judge moved too quickly, I think. There are more issues at stake here than simply "Napster is stealing music from the record industry." And the appeals court wisely decided to explore those.

Mel: Are Napster users liable for copyright infringement as a result of this injunction, or are they required to delete any MP3 files they downloaded with Napster?

Dwight Silverman: Remember that the injunction, as of now, is not in place; it's been stayed. In theory, the recording industry could go after individual users, if it could find them, but I don't think they will do that. And they have indicated they would NOT do that. It's bad PR. You don't want to be putting your own customers in jail!

Daria: What steps can be taken to allow Napster to coexist with other network applications?

Dwight Silverman: I'm not sure what you mean by "coexist with other network applications," unless you're referring to Napster's bandwidth glut. I believe that some universities have set up throttles that only let Napster use a fixed amount of bandwidth. What's interesting is that, since the initial news about Napster clogging college bandwidth, Napster use has gone up in the workplace too! So now corporations are facing the problem of this bandwidth issue. I think that could be pretty interesting, particularly as Napster moves to legitimacy with its new deal with BMG.

Dolphins Dream: Napster enjoys a large following on college campuses everywhere. Recently, some colleges and universities have begun to block access to Napster by their students, citing excessive bandwidth consumption. Do you feel schools are justified in cutting off access?

Dwight Silverman: I think bandwidth is a limited resource, and universities have the right to restrict access to it as they see fit. Just as water companies must sometimes restrict water usage in times of drought. So when a "play" application like Napster makes it hard for people to get work done online, then yes, universities have the right to restrict Napster's use.

Starlight: Napster is the only way to get to know and learn about new artists and various styles of music you might never have heard of before. I'm from Germany, where music changed from art to complete business the last years. It is really hard to get the music I prefer to listen to. So Napster has given me the opportunity to search and find my favorite music! What is so wrong about that?

Dwight Silverman: Well, whether it's "wrong" will ultimately be up to the courts. Napster has argued up to now that it's not "wrong." That all you are doing is sharing files with other people and not profiting from it. The law allows you to make copies for friends on a one-to-one basis of recorded music. The problem with Napster is that it increases the scale of this sharing. Instead of making a tape for a friend, you are providing copies to potentially millions of people. But, as anyone who uses Napster knows, millions of people don't connect to your computer to download any given song. Instead, in an evening, you'll have a handful of people logging on to your machine for specific songs. So, the issue becomes, are you really making music available to the masses? Or just to a handful of folks? This is the issue the courts will have to work out, among others.

Dolphins Dream: Even if software like Napster gets shut down, what's to stop each and every music owner from sending every single song to some third world country server so others can download and not be worried about American laws?

Dwight Silverman: You certainly could do that, in theory. In fact, there are now servers set up that don't use Napster and its own centralized directory. They are called OpenNap servers, and if Napster goes away, you would still be able to connect to them. These servers can be set up anywhere - the software to run them is free. And you can find them using a little program called Napigator at www.napigator.com. If Napster were to go away tomorrow - though the BMG deal makes that look unlikely - then you could still use the Napster client with these OpenNap servers. But (and isn't there always a but) don't presume that just because it's in a foreign country that it's safe. The music industry has a long reach, and can convince leaders of a country to take action. Don't presume anything in this little music revolution.

Persian Kitten: Users are spoiled now; do you think they will go for a user fee?

Dwight Silverman: I know I will. I will pay $5 a month, the estimated price so far to get access to Napster. I think it's worth it. Plus, it will allow Napster to offer better services. You know, one of the problems with Napster right now is that you don't know what you're getting. You could download a file that has one name, only to discover it's something else, or it's truncated. With this new system, you will have a better chance of getting a quality download.

Busy Brat: Napster isn't the only place to get music from though. Don't you think that no matter what the court's decision there will always be pirating going on? It seems a very big problem to control

Dwight Silverman: Oh yes. The genie is out of the bottle, for sure. And the music industry knows it. That's why BMG struck the deal that it did yesterday. Eventually, all of the recording companies will have some kind of digital music service. The question is, whether it will be useful to users and convenient. I don't think people will pay $1 per song, which is what the industry seems to want to charge. As long as the industry offers something that's less than optimum, you'll find alternative sources on the Net--including companies similar to Napster. You'll note that even though Scour is on its last legs, both legally and financially, it's still operating.

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