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2001 Soap Box Archives Some Thoughts on Napster I have been asked what I think about Napster, the online music pirates, and I would like to answer all those who inquired and also those of you who didn’t just to let you all know where I stand on this issue. Napster practiced larceny pure and simple, because they took somebody else’s property and made it available to the general public for free. I know that this is hard for people not dealing in what is known as intellectual property (recordings, written word, etc.) to understand because there is not a tangible item. A song cannot be touched, it can only be listened to and felt, therefore it doesn’t seem to be a real commercial product. But the truth is that a song is just as much of a product to the songwriter as an automobile is to General Motors. It’s a songwriter’s stock in trade, just as the records are the recording artist’s stock in trade, and if someone takes their means of making a living and gives it away for free just because they can, it’s tantamount to stealing. Intellectual property has always been hard to protect. Due to ignorance and apathy in our legislative bodies, the laws governing the protection of intellectual property have always lagged behind new technologies leaving unscrupulous characters free to pirate and exploit the people who create the music until the government finally gets around to doing something about it, and by then untold millions of dollars are lost forever. One of the e-mails I received asked what Napster was doing that wasn’t already being done by the taping of movies off television. The answer is that the fee for using the movie has already been paid before it’s shown on t.v., with napster there is no fee. The best way I know to explain the situation is in hypothetical terms. Let’s say that you own a grocery store and that everyday somebody would come by and load up a truck full of bread, meat, butter etc., took it out on the street outside your door and gave it away to anyone who had gumption enough to walk up and take it, and there was absolutely nothing you could do about it. Not only would you lose the money on the groceries they took, how many people do you think would come into your store and buy your wares when they were readily available for free just outside your door? That’s what Napster was doing to the music business, not just the artists and songwriters, but to the record companies,the pressing plants, the retail outlets, the trucking companies who haul the product from manufacturer to record stores And any number of little people up and down the line who actually have nothing to do with the music business. So you see, Napster is exactly what the name implies, thieves pure and simple who in the long run could do serious damage to the creation and recording of music. What do you think? God
Bless America
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