Napster

[freakysid]

So I've heard on the radio that the Federal Court in the US has handed down a decision stopping Napster from serving copyright protected material - yet I'm busy downloading as I type.

What's the story? What do others think/know about the situation?

[Sparkie]

From what I've heard, Napster can continue trading music until the prosecutors rewrite their injunction. The court ruled that it was too broad and should focus mainly on any potential copyright infringement that Napster caused. At the moment, Napster's only responsibility is to squash any "potential" copyright infringement that they are notified about. Hmm.

[Son Nguyen]

I don't know, but if you are using other software of file-swapping like FileNavigator.com or WinMX.com, does it get affected when Napster closes down? I doubt that since besides Napster network, there are people running their servers, I see so many servers in different networks..

[Vinay]

there are also the open nap servers that get listed on my gnapster (linux clone)

[SoldierMail]

I hope it becomes a paid only service. Then again some one will crack it. You know buying software builds character.

[Justin S]

All I can say is I moved to Gnutella when I first heard they would be turning into a pay service. I don't think I'm the only one that thinks that way either. Soon other services like Gnutella and iMesh will be carrying the burden, if they aren't already.

[ResearchTrack]

Originally posted by Sparkie
From what I've heard, Napster can continue trading music .....

Hi - I guess thats one of the reason because BMG ( Bertelsmann ) jumped into this services and bought a bigger part of that. That's why isn't it "closed" - just " only" judged to do not offer anymore their old service.

[Elledan]

I don't care what will happen to Napster, and I don't think that if Napster shuts down, much will change, except that one of the worst sharing programs will leave this planet.

I've used Napster Beta 8 for about 1.5 hours and uninstalled it. iMesh and CuteMX are both superior to Napster, that's why I'm using them

[klisis]

So will Naster shut down?

[Son Nguyen]

Check out the www.news.com today there are quite a couple of new videos about Napster, and the court doesn't force it to close down, but force it to prohitbit the trading of such and such songs (which are millions!)
and so it gonna come to an end soon. But IMO, Napster did a very big step in popularizing the principal/idea of peer-peer sharing (data in general and music in particular)

[wdmny]

Napster is one of the best file-sharing networks becuase so many people use it, you can find weird songs that are old, not popular, or unofficial. I know that this is possible with other file-sharing programs such as gnutella (Which I personally use), but Napster was easy for EVERYONE whether they knew much about computers or not. File-sharing has not died. I have some ideas for a better, decentralized file-sharing network(better than gnutella) that when I have time I may start. Who knows what is to come.

[klisis]

*Bows to Wes DeMoney, the future napster*

[Park T]

Originally posted by Elledan

I've used Napster Beta 8 for about 1.5 hours and uninstalled it. iMesh and CuteMX are both superior to Napster, that's why I'm using them

Yes, Beta 8 and 9 are both terrible. i still have Beta 7 on my Computer which I think is the best.

[Son Nguyen]

Originally posted by Wes DeMoney
File-sharing has not died. I have some ideas for a better, decentralized file-sharing network(better than gnutella) that when I have time I may start. Who knows what is to come.

Agree.

And wanna share your ideas? Might be we could build a better business model than they do!

[Plebius]

I have a question.

Are there any programs out there that allow you to resume interrupted downloads for MP3's? Napster doesn't seem to have that ability.

I'm downloading some very large files (45-85 megs) and it gets annoying when I've downloaded 30 megs and get disconnected and have to start over.

[Son Nguyen]

I tried WinMX and FileNavigator, both have that feature. Though normally you're disconnected because they go offline or they don't want you to download

[Postman1]

When Napster implements its fee service, there will be a huge decline in user based system with it's current 55 million users. As fewer and fewer people use the service, it becomes less and less valuable to remaining users on the service. Look at Yahoo when it implemented its fees on auction sites. According to the statistics, it dropped 90%.
Ouch!!

http://www.thestreet.com/tech/internet/1306780.gif

[CJ]

Oh my god....

In Belgium the Fed Police (so the highest police) has threatened that it has started scanning all internet traffic for mp3 downloads and it will take immidiate action if a user is found.

Now, to do such tasks you would need super computer in my opinion. Or at least a lot of computers. Where did they get these from within 2 days? Also, how quickly did they decide to do that? Mostly it takes ages in belgium to decide something. And than again, how can they take action against 10000s of people who download songs? They already have too much work on their hands...

I hate the Music Industry and I will boycot them till I can get songs of the internet again. That means no CDs, no nothing. I will only listen to the radio.

Btw... our fed gov isn't exactly smart. All we could do is change all .mp3 extensions to .htm and be downloading them without them knowing. Maybe I'll write my genius idea to some news paper

This are sad days for ALL internet users, and the music industry may drop dead, as they have now made 100+ million mad. I hope some artists have the guts to stand up against those firms, who only run away with artists money.

[Cloughie]

Napster is still going but I will be sooooo annoyed when it goes !

I use it and STILL buy CD's

I normally use it at work for chilling to music...

Its great for all the underground stuff that is going on..

For my favourate artists I still go and buy the cd's anyhow as its easier and I canlt be bothered to download all tracks etc onto a cd.. plus you have to check them as smoe tracks have jummps etc...

For me napster is computer music and Cd's are my car or home music, simple as that, so me using napster is not affecting me buying cd's although I am sure this is different amongst people..

Oh well guess we'll just have to wait and see...

[CJ]

This prooves yet again that ALL artists sing for the MONEY, rather than for the joy of their fans.

99.99% of those who download music, do it to enjoy the music, not to sell it. They don't bother enough to buy a whole CD for one song they like.

Oh well

[Son Nguyen]

I like the artists @mp3.com, they know online streaming (download) of their songs is a promotion method.

I download MP3 from www.mp3.com more than on any file-sharing (first, it's complete - not broken files, second, it's guaranteed fast - 40KB/s, third, it has more fav. songs than what I thought)

[michaelwheaton]

I just read yesterday on a news site that Napster is gonna be starting to charge for use. $2.95/month for a plan that limits the amount of downloads you get, and $9.95/month for unlimited downloads. I know that they will lose a lot of their 55 million users, but if even 10 million stayed they would be a profitable business. Plus they would be legal and have money for advertising, adding more users and slowly growing like any other business. I will definately pay for Napster this summer because I really like music and I also have an MP3 player. For some people who only download 5 songs a month (like my dad) it won't be worth even the $2.95. But for someone like me who downloads lots of songs and has an MP3 player to play them on, it's well worth it. The monthly charge for unlimited access is less than the cost of one CD! They are also talking about adding new features to the software and having chats with the artists and stuff like that, which is a plus. Will you pay for Napster?

[atomicmunky]

Originally posted by michaelwheaton
I just read yesterday on a news site that Napster is gonna be starting to charge for use. $2.95/month for a plan that limits the amount of downloads you get, and $9.95/month for unlimited downloads. |~| Will you pay for Napster?

one of the reasons i think that charging a fee for the "service" that napster provides isn't going to work is this :

if you've ever tried downloading music from napster or online in general, you know that sometimes you get some bad files. if you keep track of how many bad or corrupted files you get off of napster, you will realilze that it's a lot more than you had thought. so ask yourself this : would you be willing to pay any amount of money, no matter how small, when you know that a percentage of the songs you download aren't in good condtion?

i think that until they can guarantee the quality of the songs on the napster network, not a lot of people will be willing to pay for it. let's be honest here, the main reason that people like napster is because it's free. if i'm going to put down my money for a piece of software, i want to know that all the bugs have been worked out and that i will be able to download good/non-corrupt files. and the actual napster application can definitely be better than it currently is. what do you think?

[Elledan]

Originally posted by LuZeR
Are there any programs out there that allow you to resume interrupted downloads for MP3's? Napster doesn't seem to have that ability.

Try iMesh and AudioGalaxy.

[the_master]

I really dont care what'll happen to napster. never used it.
The only thing that i use is cuteftp program and very nice ftp search engine: OTH.net

You can downloads games/programs/ftps from other PC's (trading) without that somebody will close/charge the entire FTP lol.

AND you can resume downloads with CuteFtp.

If I need any mp3s/full albums, I just seek there and always find what im searching for.

Sorry gotta go! Cya!

~T_M~