Why Napster is the Good Guy (and the RIAA Is Not)

"David Coursey's recent piece on Napster was the last straw for me. I could barely sit still reading Coursey declare: "The simple fact of the matter is that if copyright owners don't give their permission, passing their content around is stealing, plain and simple...."

The record companies could have evolved with the rest of the world, but they have deliberately chosen to fight against change. Coursey may be a big fan of RIAA president Hilary Rosen, but she is messing up the music business, and that's why Napster was born.

Unfortunately for the RIAA, once the bell has been rung, you can't unring it. When one file-swapping site goes down, there will be two or three more to take its place. I started with Napster, then went to Aimster.com and Morpheus. Now I'm on WinMX, which, come to think of it, I downloaded from ZDNet Downloads.

How's that for irony?" [ZDNet]

Although there is nothing particularly new for my regular readers in this piece, some of the comments are more interesting. While most of the comments are purely reactionary with little factual basis, Gary Wilkinson interjects this reminder:

"There are many misconceptions on both sides of this argument, but let's clear up a factual error in this reply first: The RIAA doesn't sell ANYTHING other than memberships. It's a trade organization - a single entity that's hired by multiple companies to represent their common interests - just like the National Restaurant Association, the Business Software Alliance, etc. The RIAA's membership is made up of many record labels that, for the most part, set their own prices and make their own rules. If a member company, like say Bertelsman, decides to begin selling music in a different way (Mini-disc, download, DVD audio, etc.) that's their own decision completely separate from the RIAA. And any member company can discontinue membership when it no longer meets their needs."

Thomas Ingledew points to Steve Albini's about The Problem with Music, which describes a record producers view of how the record companies treat music artists. Then Dan Sherman points to an ebook titled How I Made $2.2 Million Selling MP3 Files Without Getting Caught. Does anyone know anything about this title? Lots of disclaimers on the page for it.