>Man, I'm digging this new Chatter Category, I think I'll make it my default forum.

Does that mean we don't have to listen to your crap in the other forums anymore?

>Anyways, what do ya'll think about Napster? I say downloading an MP3 and keeping it for more than 7 days on your computer is illegal. Plain and simple, there is NOTHING to justify stealing Copyrighted material.

If it's so plain and simple, what's ok about the 6th day that's not ok about the 8th day?


>I laugh so hard when I see some little punk AOL Hacker wanabe say that he deserves to download someone elses artistic property because they charge too much for it or already have enough money. How selfish is that? How counter prodcutive is that?

I agree- that's BS. But there is a little merit to that argument, IMO.

The record companies did create this problem for themselves by overcharging and failing to give us alternatives to complete CDs.

If you haven't seen it before, this is an interesting read:
http://www.salonmag.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/print.html

I'm not saying that it's ok to steal copyrighted material, only that the record companies left the only grocery store in a starving village unlocked all night.

>Anyone here a Napster fiend?

Sort of. I use Napster fairly often for a couple of things:

When I want a single song that is not worth the price of the rest of the CD (like Jim Croce's Don't Mess Around With Jim).

When I want a song that is unavailable on any CD (The groovy techno song in the VW commercial or the Airwolf theme song)

When I want to buy a CD in a genre of music that I know little about, and I need to find an artist that I enjoy enough to make me want to purchase the CD: (I feel like a Tango this week, where do I start?)

WHen I know I like an artist, but don't know which CD to buy (are there any bad Gipsy Kings CDs?)

When I already have a song on tape or on vinyl, but want to hear it on my home stereo, or when I own a song on CD, but hate the rest of the CD, and would like to able to play it in a custom lineup (like for a party).

All in all, the net effect of my having access to Napster has probably been me purchasing more CDs.

I'm not sure if the way that I use Napster is right or not- but I do know one thing- if Napster imposes the proposed ~$5 monthly fee that it will use to reimburse artists, I will be all over it, even if there are free alternatives.

If record companies had decided long ago to make each published song individually available for .50, or entire albums for $3-4 with cover art/liner notes, I guarantee they would be making _much_ more money than they are now. But the truth is they have been robbing us (and the artist) for years, and it's just now coming back to bite them.