Napster has been in the news a lot lately with legal injunctions pending in the appeals court ruling against them. Copyright is a tricky issue and one that I think is very important. The problem is, in our modern era, copyright is tied to the distribution channels. You will notice that the law suit against Napster was brought not by artists (though Metallica is certainly a driving force behind the RIAA suit) but by an industry organization put together primarily by distributors.

I think this is the heart of the true problem. The thing the Internet fundamentally alters is not the cost of producing music. The thing the Internet alters is the cost of delivering music. That means that the value added by distributors has been reduced to essentially zero. People don't *want* CDs anymore. The business model of Sony, Virgin, and all the other RIAA subscribers has been essentially trashed. Their practice of putting three decent songs together with eight lesser pieces and selling the whole thing together for $20 is now over. People want control over what they purchase and that control will win over all the legal issues RIAA is trying to throw up to protect their business. People will keep on ripping MP3s of their favorite songs in order to put their own collections together based on what they *really* want regardless of whatever legal issues may stand in their way.

In my opinion, the law is *not* intended to protect businesses beyond their usefulness. Just ask carriage makers in the early 20th century.

Now, people are saying that artists deserve to make money on their hard work. I agree with that. However, the place that most artists make money is *not* currently album sales. Album sales act as a primer for concert and merchandizing sales where the real money is made. Smart artists should recognize that fundamental fact and relearn the lessons they learned with radio--i.e. that if you restrict the access, you end up hurting yourself where you actually make the money. Artists now compete for radio (and MTV, but less so) air time. They should do the same with their Internet distribution systems. Frankly, they'd be smart to give their music out in exchange for basic demographic data. Stuff that will allow them to gear future venues to their greatest fan base.

Ripping CDs to MP3s is tough. I've done it and I can tell you that it is a non-trivial effort for non-geeks. The value that Napster provides is that you can find the songs you want without the hassle of trying to rip the stupid album yourself. This is a valuable service when you consider that even after I've slain the technical issues, I can download a song faster than the computer can rip a new copy off a CD. In this light, Napster provides a perfectly legitimate service to people like me who have purchased valid copies of music they like. I fear that the potential illegal uses of Napster will cause the legal authorities to broaden current copyright law beyond the original protective intent.

It is perhaps instructive to note that the court that issued the injunction against Napster is the same court that issued a similar ruling against VHS. The potential to use new technology to make illegal copies should *not* preclude the legal use of that technology. Change brings pain as systems you built up on the current model are found to be obsolete. Companies want their revenues to be protected from these changes and as such, the lawsuits are understandable. RIAA and the artists eventually behind them need to come to grips with the new technology and figure out how they can continue to make money using the resources they have available. Otherwise, their fear that they are obsolete will become self-fulfilling.