By
Cory Spiller
Guilt used to be simple: cheating on a test, a lustful glance at an attractive passerby while holding your girlfriend's hand or just simply sneaking a donut from time to time. Now, guilt is just a double-click away, and the object of our sin is free music. Napster is amazing, but it is quite simply stealing, and artists, and record companies know it. There is no way that Napster can stick around, and as much as it hurts to say it, it should probably go.
If you haven't tried Napster, you should: but that's if you can handle the unbearable guilt. It's quite simple; you download software that lets you interact with other users. You can pick through their library and they do the same to you. Both sides get is CD quality music for absolutely nothing. From there, you can play the music on your computer, purchase an MP3 player, or, if you have a CD burner, transfers you music directly
to CD, and there's no catch. Yet.
As you can imagine, record executives are pulling out their ponytails over this little program. The pre-pubescent population of the world no longer has to beg mommy and daddy to drive them to BestBuy to throw down $12.99 for the new LimpBisquick, or Backstreet Boy album, they can simply download the worthless noise off Napster. You shouldn't have any guilt about downloading LimpBisquick, or the Backstreet Boys, they have enough money, and Sony and the other major record labels can take the hit. However, it's the little guys that will suffer. The small names like Greg Brown, Dan Bern and Guy Clark; never heard of them? That's because they don't have huge record contracts, they can't sell out stadiums, and they will never be on MTV, but they make incredible music and they need to be paid.
The lawsuits that are sitting in federal court right now weren't filed by penniless singer-songwriters from Iowa, but by the big record labels. Currently, EMI, Sony, Universal and Time Warner Music are awaiting a verdict from the U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, which could shut Napster down for good. Only Bertelsmann, a record label from Germany, has attempted to work with Napster. An agreement between the two groups was signed last week, allowing Napster to continue circulating their music that is copyrighted by Bertelsmann, but for a price. Discussion about making Napster a paysite is currently underway, which would pay Bertelsmann a portion of a monthly membership fee.
Most of the record labels already have deals with sites such as Launch.com, MP3.com, and Emusic.com, which allows individuals to download music for a fee, and the current going rate is about two bucks a ditty. Besides obscure pirate pages, Napster is the only site that has free music and a lot of it. The more members the more music, and right now there are just under 40 million registered users. Emusic.com is taking a different route to protecting its property.
Recently, they have released a warning to Napster users that they are being watched. Emusic has created what is known as a digital fingerprint, and will attach it to MP3s that it has purchased copyrights to, such as Kenny Rogers and Louis Armstrong tunes. They plan to follow the downloading of their files, and then inform the offending downloaders of their error. The downloader can either erase the file, or get kicked off Napster. So maybe you will have to delete your copies of "The Gambler," and, "La Vie En Rose," but the only way to completely stop this modern day Robin Hood is to pull the plug.
Napster is an amazing program, but it has gone too far. If we were to continue downloading music we didn't pay for, artists would stop making the music. Napster isn't destroying the big record labels, and frankly most of us wouldn't give a damn if it did. But it is stomping on the little guys -the no-name musicians that need record sales to pay rent, buy food and change their guitar strings. But most importantly look what Napster has done to our delicate psyches. People are rushing to confessional telling bewildered priests stories of downloading entire albums. The guilt is unbearable! The temptation is too great! Napster was great in the beginning, but we are no longer innocents. Napster must be banished.
