Month: <span>July 2000</span>

Scott Rosenberg: “And what will be the impact of the court-ordered shutdown of Napster? These projects — small, underground efforts that grew unnoticed in the shadow of Napster the company — will be flooded with energy. Users will flock to them, and talented software hackers will work overtime to perfect them.

“From the recording industry’s point of view, it is slaying one enemy only to seed the field with a thousand new opponents — opponents who are, not incidentally, its own best customers.”

via Scripting News

“Napster and its clones — including Gnutella and FreeNet, which will defy attempts at control due to their entirely decentralized nature — have overturned some fundamentals, just as the invention of internal combustion ruined the business model for the horse and buggy. Shut down Napster and a hundred other Napster-like apps will surface. That’s life, folks. Get on with it.

“The music industry loathes us. Let’s loathe it back.”