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Bertelsmann—the "early adopter" that has struggled to get the other majors on board for its paid-Napster initiative—could end up being the sole big-label-group holdout in the Vivendi-Sony-AOL subscription service.

NAPSTER PARADOXES

Some Stuff To Ponder While We Await
The Swappery's Fate
Napster has probably been a disincentive for some people to buy records. It has also been an incentive for some other people to buy records.

Napster allows people to share their music with others, motivating the formation of a sizable and vital community. But a large portion of that community only downloads and doesn't share music.

Napster permits the circulation for free of songs by major-label artists. Some artists are up in arms about this, while others support it.

The ones who support it wish the labels they signed to would or could circulate some of their music for free—on radio.

If Napster wins its trial, it loses—since anyone can come along and offer for free what it proposes to offer for money.

The RIAA may have lost public support for its attempt to protect labels' business interests by claiming to represent artists' rights instead of their business interests.

Both the RIAA and Napster have hired prominent Republicans in the effort to gain the upper hand in lobbying for favorable legislation. The result: policy about what you can download will almost certainly be written by people who still haven't forgiven Pat Boone for going metal.

Bertelsmann—the "early adopter" that has struggled to get the other majors on board for its paid-Napster initiative—could end up being the sole big-label-group holdout in the rumored Vivendi-Sony-AOL subscription service.

In attempting to patrol copyright violations, aggressive anti-piracy companies like Copyright.net will almost certainly face legal action for violating user privacy.

Whether or not Napster is shut down, you will still be able to buy a bootleg Britney Spears CD for eight bucks in Chinatown.

If you bought an album—say, "Abbey Road"—on vinyl, eight-track, reel-to-reel, cassette and/or CD already, are you obliged to "license" the music again in digital-file form?

Napster the fully licensed service may never come to be, but Napster with only BMG, TVT, various indie labels and unsigned artists could continue to thrive as a "tasting" community.

The majors wish to control the digital distribution of their music and would like access to Napster's user base. Yet that user base constellated around a system that put control in the hands of consumers.

Many of the files circulating on Napster are live bootlegs—which, in CD or other physical form—would be making money for bootleggers.

Digital distribution with copying restrictions, which most rights-holders seem to want, will limit "viral" dissemination of music and could thus reduce sales of some CDs.
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