In
recent interoffice debates at the headquarters of DMO, we have gone
face-to-face over religion vs. evolution, Mac vs. PC, who gets to run
the DMN Simms Family and now, Napster vs. artist copyrights. Today I
am going to cover the latter, although my favorite is the first.
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I
often wonder
who really knows what the big commotion is about regarding free music
file sharing. From my understanding, this file sharing debate actually
has very little to do with artist copyright loss. Napster didn't invent
digital music file sharing, they just enhanced its ease of use. Music
is just the test market for the eventual global economic distribution
network.
Question Number One: Why is Napster allowing everyone
to share music via their servers for free? To be honest, I don't know
their business model, but here is what I see:
He who controls digital distribution controls the world. Be it a netcaster,
performing artists group, record company, broadcaster, satellite company,
or advocacy group, the debate is not about free music, it's about power.
Napster allows users of its software to access their hardware, which
functions as a global network. No music is stored on their hardware,
just information regarding who's using it, such as an individual's ping.
For example, you have MP3s on your computer at home and you take a trip,
let's say on the other side of the country.You want to access your music.
If you signed up with Napster, you could type in your name from anywhere
in the world, access your music and download it.
Now currently that's not exactly how it's being used. Everyone who signed
up with Napster has access to everyone's music--whether it's copyrighted
by them or not. This is what the CURRENT music recording industry is
shoving into the face of the media and the court. They have a legitimate
gripe! The music labels and independents (such as Metallica) have invested
a lot of money, time, and talent in this business model and to see it
dissolve at a click of a button without any residuals is difficult to
bear.
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