June 13, 2000

11:10 PM

Napster's screwed: Internal NapsterCo email and documents show that they intended to be a copyright-infringing pirate haven from the very beginning. Should have used PGP, kids!
posted by aaron (5 comments total)

Nope. If they get good lawyers this won't affect them in the least.
posted by ZachsMind at 6:53 AM on June 14, 2000

Considering Napster's repeated missteps, I wouldn't trust them to hire good janitors.

One would think that after the Microsoft antitrust trial that people would just SHUT UP on email. I mean, if Billy Boy can fuck up the world's largest software company with a few candid emails, then surely two twits from Massachusetts can hose themselves by bragging about repeated copyright violations.

But wait. Maybe this was their strategy all along. Break the law in such a flagrant way and let the genie out of the bottle. Now they can look squarely at the RIAA and say, "It's out. Now you can either fight it and get screwed in the end, or work with us to get everyone up to speed."

There *is* a revenue model out there. I mean, heck, I'd pay a decent fee to have access to all that music. No skin off my teeth.
posted by solistrato at 7:29 AM on June 14, 2000

A silly question most likely, but how did *they* get hold of the emails, and are the contents admissable as evidence in court?
posted by esquilax at 9:00 AM on June 14, 2000

They probably broke into the machines or maybe the ISP keeps a log of the stuff...
posted by hobbes at 10:54 AM on June 14, 2000

It seems to me that the emails quoted were from before Napster was a company. They way they were described in the article made them look more like emails between the founding college kids while still at college...
posted by bryanboyer at 11:58 AM on June 14, 2000