So long, Napster.
posted by griphus on Dec 1, 2011 - 61 comments

Get that MP3, and get the boot In a -IMHO- patetic effort to try to stop what can't be stopped, the RIAA and MPAA are urging companies to monitor their employee's downloading habits or face suing, damages, sanctions and what have you against them. In other words, inciting companies to treat their employees as potential criminals and dispose of them accordingly. While the risks of using P2P at work such as virii and leaking of private files do have a point, this is really about the RIAA/MPAA resorting to more desperate measures each time to try to stay afloat with their jaded business model, which will do nothing but accelerate their long-forecast demise in the "real" new economy.
posted by betobeto on Feb 15, 2003 - 16 comments

We all knew the day would come, the time to put the "you" in P2P: Buy your own piece of Napster at their bankruptcy auction. December 11th, live and webcast, their impressive set of top o' the line (for 2001) equipment is up for grabs.
posted by mathowie on Nov 19, 2002 - 9 comments

Napster files for bankruptcy - The pioneer finally gives up the ghost. *sob*
posted by wibbler on Jun 3, 2002 - 6 comments

The War Against MP3? Hilary Rosen, everyone's favourite defender of record company hegemony, outlines her new strategy ("Help me help you.") in an email leaked to FuckedCompany. Interestingly, it's aimed at beating the dastardly hackers at their own game, with tactics such as "Spoofing and/or interdiction methods for existing peer to peers". Signs of desparation on the part of the RIAA, or should people be making the most of the second-generation Napster clones while they have a chance?
posted by holgate on Oct 3, 2001 - 34 comments

Stick a fork in Napster, it's done. If court orders and kowtowing to industry mouthpieces weren't enough, a planned switch to a proprietary new music format looks to be the death blow.
posted by harmful on Jul 17, 2001 - 10 comments

Could this be the straw that breaks the Camels back.
posted by monkeyJuice on May 8, 2001 - 13 comments

MP3 Translator You deserve the right to privately trade music on the Internet. Napster currently has filters set in place that look for certain words in the Artist and/or Song Title. To get around this, all you have to do is:
posted by webcowboy on Mar 6, 2001 - 47 comments

Ok... let me get this straight. copyright.net has turned loose a tapeworm, called CopyrightAgent, that crawls around on your computer without your permission, looking for copyrighted MP3 files. If it find them, it reports back your IP address, and they have Napster block you, if you're a Napster user. Otherwise, they contact your ISP, and have *them* block you under the DMCA.

And the first I heard about this was a Knight-Ridder wire story in my local paper?? Why the hell hasn't the Internet reacted by burning these people's offices (or uplink :-) to the ground?
posted by baylink on Mar 3, 2001 - 20 comments

But tell us how you really feel.
James Hetfield in Playboy: "[Metallica fans sided with Napster] Because they're lazy bastards and they want everything for free. I like playing music because it's a good living and I get satisfaction from it. But I can't feed my family with satisfaction.''

Lars Ulrich chimes in: "If you'd stop being a Metallica fan because I won't give you my music for free, then fuck you. I don't want you to be a Metallica fan."

I suppose it's a good thing they're on the verge of a break-up.
posted by honkzilla on Mar 1, 2001 - 43 comments

Napster takes first steps in trying to appease the RIAA, and specifically BMG. To me this approach is the stupidest thing Napster could have done. Who would want to pay a membership fee to use Napster if one can't even burn the files onto a cd?
posted by JFunk2800 on Feb 21, 2001 - 1 comment

IBM, with the latest attempt to put the genie back in the bottle. Their fatal flaw is betting on a post-napster world, though I bet their EMMS technology gets cracked before that ever happens.
posted by mathowie on Jan 22, 2001 - 11 comments

A new survey of online music aficianados supports claims that the Napster crowd has been making for months: MP3-swappers are more likely to purchase music after listening to it for free.
posted by harmful on Jul 21, 2000 - 3 comments

Love unloads This is one of the more comprehensive and insightful takes on the RIAA vs. Napster vs. Record Companies that I've heard. It's long and rambling, but it makes a lot of sense to me.
posted by y6y6y6 on Jun 14, 2000 - 35 comments

The Brunching Shuttlecocks are planning to follow Metallica's lead in seeking out pirates of their MP3 music on Napster. They have different ideas about how to deal with said pirates, though.
posted by harmful on Jun 2, 2000 - 3 comments

Motley disses Metallica Mister Sixx and pals give their response to Lars' crew, on the whole mp3/napster issue. Sounds like 2 groups of people are benefitting from all these lawsuits, lawyers and flash-cartoonists...
posted by nomisxid on May 31, 2000 - 4 comments

''They're absolutely lying. There's no question that they're lying,'' Ummmm... Yeah...
posted by da5id on May 17, 2000 - 29 comments

What does the MP3.com case have to do with online Music trading? Why can't the media ever actually try to understand a fairly simple issue before reporting on it. Beam-IT has nothing to do with music trading. Napster has a website but Dre's music can only be found in the Napster application The "Love Bug virus" isn't. And "hackers" (in the non-media use of the word) aren't criminals. Ugh!!
posted by fooljay on May 7, 2000 - 1 comment

Download an Mp3... ...and goto jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Of course, you can always DoS attack the Motion Pictures Association of America's website, (which was down as I was writing this.) but that would most likely only land you in even deeper water than downloading the Mp3.
posted by da5id on Apr 17, 2000 - 5 comments

WTF!?! Everyone's favorite band (back in high school) Metallica is suing Napster and a handful of universities for unlawful trading of their music. This is ridiculous, and I hope it doesn't set a precedence. If anyone would just slap a revenue model on napster so artists could get paid for their work, none of this piracy crap would happen. And Metallica, what about the other apps that do the same thing, are you going to sue them too? And what about every other band on earth? What do you expect to get out of universities, tighter controls over bandwidth, or student monitoring of internet usage? What about every cable modem and DSL provider that lets people use Napster, are you going after them too? Why don't you sue everyone on earth that's heard your songs but didn't pay for them? Side question: Is it better to burn out or fade away?
posted by mathowie on Apr 13, 2000 - 17 comments

And in other news, Indiana University announced today that they're developing jointly with Napster a solution to the congestion problem the MP3-sharing program can cause (which has led to Napster being blocked by campuses nationwide). Access to Napster will be reinstated on campus for a two-week period starting March 25 to test this new method. This new method will soon be made available for web developers at http://bestpath.iu.edu. Yippee. I get to download *NSync tunes again.
posted by hit-or-miss on Mar 22, 2000 - 1 comment

If you haven't heard of Napster yet, check it out. This is a killer tool, a combination mp3 player and file transfer client/server. While you play mp3s, other users can download songs from your library, while you do the same from their libraries. This is a great idea but must be a nightmare for the recording industry. This could be a really cool community tool, if everyone is generous with their music.
posted by mathowie on Oct 29, 1999 - 1 comment