for 18 July 2000. Updated every WEEKDAY. |
![[Tim Cavanaugh]](/fish/staff/images/tim.gif)
Tim Cavanaugh Special Guest Editor 
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Prank, and File
Here's to hoping that your just
Ian My taste in music, as it is
Huck
one more thought about the
<jcswift@Frictionless.com> That's a good point, and it's
Huck
Dear Sainted One: You know, I thought I was
Who would have predicted that
Nice job. Thanks. Alan S Kornheiser
Well, many people believe
huck
I agree to most of that in
<bmessmer@nshs.com> Well, overstating the
While I agree that the
Huck
 Why do I read Suck? Not just to laugh, but because for years it also provides us with some of the more insightful commentary/reporting available. Thanks for keeping that tradition alive. Todd <mentcht@yahoo.com> Come on, Todd, admit it. What you really read Suck for is the pictures... Best, Huck Your article is right on. As a nap user I can tell you that Napster is not as easy as it seems.that is most of the people who share mp3's do so with a slow connection rate. A slow connection rate means partical downloads,long waits and constant errors.I've tried to slove that problem by only trading with cabel or above connections.This helps a little but since my new v.90 modem is on a 2 8 8 line,I'm lucky to get 3 complete songs in one night.Also, most of the succesful downloads are usually not complete. I beleave in napster I couldn'd tell you how many times I've shared cassttes with freinds so that they could make copyies.As far as metallica is concered in the eighties I bought all of their albums not to mention the 3 copies of "And Justice For All" I' ve bought of the years. Ther are many other file sharing programs that alow much more than mp3's to be traded how do you think Napster's problem's will effect them? chris clary Luckily for the record and movie industries, it seems that other programs like gnutella and freenet will create even more demand for the reliable service a company can offer. As you imply in your letter, the problem with the peer-to-peer file exchange model is that the other users don't really care that much if you get your complete song or not, or how fast you get it. instead of worrying about getting ripped off and creating proprietary standards, companies should be embracing the wide-open nature of Napster and other services, because they actually create a demand for reliable branded service... Huck Since you wrote an essay that seemed to be about this I thought I would tell you...Napster was created and is almost solely used for piracy. Ebay was and is not. I don't know where you got the idea that anyone thinks Napster bootlegging is making people money. I guess it could be if you were going to sell a Beatles CD that had 241 songs in MP3 format but that's an extreme case. The piracy on ebay is nothing like you've made it out to be. For some reason you mention software for a second. Did you read that Software & Information Industry Association "survey"? It said they found only 138 legitimate auctions! 138. Think about that. 138! Incredibly, the next sentence says, "Amazon.com...had almost no illegitimate software". Hmmm...out of Amazon.com, eBay, Excite and Yahoo! there was only 138 legitimate Software auctions? Did you actually read and then quote this ridiculous article? You're writing for suck.com, you're suppose to have common sense. It seems like you wrote this because ebay makes a dollar or so on every item sold. Do you really think that with four million listings at any given time ebay would risk the huge lawsuits Napster is having to deal with? Ebay does not need bootlegs. All they care about is money. I would bet anything that they would monitor every CD auction if the recording industry wanted them to. But they don't. Because Napster is a much better piracy tool. It's free, instantaneous, and there are no risks. Ebay is not free, far from instantaneous, and you have a very large chance of being ripped off. Write all the ebay or Napster or on-line piracy essays you want. They are necessary and, despite what you >might think, I love to read them. But only if they're honest, fair, and use some common sense. At least you gave me the phrase, "vaguely Christian power-balladeer". Bill <aeiou@velocity.net> You are misunderstanding the piece because you are looking at it from the perspective of a Napster user, rather than a traditional bootlegger, i.e., someone who rips off someone else's property and makes money off it. Read it again from that perspective and maybe it will make more sense to you. Re: The idea that "anyone thinks that Napster bootlegging is making money." From my perspective, the statements of many artists and many recording industry people definitely imply that Napster bootlegging is making someone money. When Lars Ulrich dropped off his boxes to Napster, he repeatedly talked about how companies like Napster were making money off this bootlegging. And many other artists (Dr. Dre, etc.) have talked about how money is being taken out of their pockets by Napster and similar products. And if actual money is being lost by someone, the implication of course is that it's being gained by someone else. Obviously, this isn't happening, and i don't state that it is. Instead, my essay satirizes the fallacies behind such statements, and the tendency by the record industry to conflate Napster-enabled file-exchanging with traditional music piracy, where someone actually is stealing something and then selling it for a profit. Re: Your comments about the SIIA survey - I can't figure out what point you're trying to make. Are you saying you don't believe the survey because they only found 138 legitimate auctions and you think there must be more than that? Re: Your comments about napster being a much better piracy tool - again, you're looking at it from the perspective of a consumer/fan rather than an entrepreneurial bootlegger. Anyway, write all the letters you want. I love to read them, even if i do find answering them kind of a hassle. huck Decent article, mildly humorous. However, I have to wonder if you have ever actually used Napster or are instead pulling a Lars and speaking about the topic based on secondhand knowledge. If you look at the file sizes of the search results for "Bawitdaba" you quickly notice those that are aberrant and can stay away from them. Of course this would not work if the parody out populated the original but in that case the parody is probably better anyway. Bradley Messmer <bmessmer@nshs.edu> Decent letter, mildly humorous. But I have to wonder how much you've really thought this out. Even for an "official copy" of a song, there could be many different file sizes, because of different bit rates, people chopping off a few seconds, etc. Plus, if you really want to "consumerize" the process, you really can't depend on people to compare file sizes. Remember that the average person is stupid, and my guess is that the average Kid Rock fan is even more stupid than that... And of course, your authentication method doesn't take into account songs that are complete fakes, or supposedly official remixes, or live versions, or what have you. At the moment, you probably get the song you really want over 95% of the time. and maybe it will remain that way. but what if it that slips to 80% or 70%? And then, of course, the next question is: at what point would you start paying to have 100% accuracy/reliability? Obviously, the answer is contingent upon how much you have to pay, and what level of accuracy/satisfaction completely free services like Napster are delivering. But while a lot of people have jumped to the conclusion that Napster's success means people won't pay for music online, all it's really proven is that if you give people a big selection of songs, and fast delivery, and reasonable service, they will download digital music. but there are so many ways napster could be improved, and many people would probably be willing to pay something for those improvements. and the potential for unreliabilty in napster and other peer-to-peer system's, where it's not someone's job to make sure you have a good experience, will contribute to that. Huck |
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