What Are Microsoft And Napster Talking About? 137
An Anonymous Coward points to this CNN article, writing: "look here, Microsoft and Napster are talking, looks like Microsoft is going to buy Napster." Actually, the story specifically says that Microsoft has rejected buying Napster, and that the ongoing secretive talks actually have another probable outcome: Microsoft's digital protection schemes for music files are a more likely point of confluence between the scrappy, beleagered protector of Internet Freedom and Goodness and, well, Napster.
napster selling out (Score:1)
hopefully the other projects being done with a similar motivation will keep the fight up, no matter how much VC gets thrown at them.
Nothing New (Score:1)
Anyway, there's really no easy way for them to convert mp3 users to WMA. Compression isn't an issue with the proliferation of bandwidth. So what if it takes 45 seconds longer to download. Only if they strike a deal with the Record Cartels will they be able to force us to WMA.
But I don't know how they'd be able to do that very easily. Napster is dead. It sucks that the blood sucking recording industry sought to restrict our rights to share files in general. They've killed Napster, but in the process, they've failed to capitalize on the opportunity to change their business model. Apparently, making huge profit margins (passing very little to the artist I might add...) on old fashioned CD distribution was all they knew what to do. Now, as a result, people will continue to exchange MP3s over gnutella or others. They've missed their opportunity. And that's fine with me. cameron
Re:MS vs RIAA (Score:1)
MAYBE THEY SAID THIS (Score:4)
Bill, I can't understand it, why you wont buy me
After all the things I've bought from you
I bought your Works and windows, put diamonds on your fingers (Diamond on your fingers)
And still you still won't buy, what am I to do
My girl uses Napster all the time
Napster all the time, Napster all the time
My girl uses Napster all the time
Napster all the time, Napster all the time
Ooh...hoo...hoo...
Napster all the time
She likes to use Napster all the time
Napster all the time
Ooh...hoo...hoo...
Napster all the time
She likes to use Napster all the time
Napster all the time
Bill, I seen you at the courts, just hangin' out and trollin'
You plead the 5th to every judge you see
You never come home at night because you're out controllin'
I wish you'd bring some of your doe home to me
But my girl uses Napster all the time
My girl uses Napster all the time
Napster all the time, Napster all the time
My girl uses Napster all the time
Napster all the time, Napster all the time
Ooh...hoo...hoo...
Napster all the time
She likes to use Napster all the time
Napster all the time
Ooh...hoo...hoo...
Napster all the time
She likes to use Napster all the time
Napster all the time
Ooh...hoo...hoo...
Napster all the time
She likes to use Napster all the time
Napster all the time
Ooh...hoo...hoo...
Napster all the time
She likes to use Napster all the time
Napster all the time
\\s0nGdEvIL\\
It went something like this: (Score:4)
Re:Hidden Motivation? (Score:2)
We'll give you lots of $$$ if you push wma's, and make it so it will search for shared wma's first before mp3's.
Probably even an option to convert your mp3's to wma's to save disk space and get better quality, etc...
Re:Hidden Motivation? (Score:2)
A regular expression troll (Score:1)
Stop trying to pass off napster as the righteous defender of all that's good and true on the internet. Yes, file sharing is important to the nature of the internet, but when you build your service around pirating MP3s, you won't get any sympathy from me when the owners of the songs being pirated come after you.
Hidden Motivation? (Score:5)
(not a troll or a conspiracy theory -- just an observation)
Jethro
Re:WMA (Score:1)
Your suggestion is probably closer than mine to what they're likely to wind up doing, though. Napster's going to put in a system like that eventually; they might as well liscense microsoft's..
Re:WMA (Score:2)
More likely it isn't about *forcing* the user to trade WMAs, but rather just *allowing* them to. Napster still requires all files moved to be mp3s or mp2s, don't they? Well, here's a nice alternative to forcing everybody on the file sharing network to use a format nobody uses yet and killing the file sharing network as a result: just find a way to get a bunch of .wmas floating around on that network, and make it so napster client can play those wmas. The napster user can't tell what format they're using; they just click on the first thing along the lines of "Creed - I Sure Do Like Pearl Jam.tla" in the search window and tell napster to play it for them. So start dumping .wmas on the network and pretty soon they'll get into vaguely wide circulation.. hell, i can't think of a better way to get a format widespread. Get a couple of .wmas on the hard drive of every single idiot napster user out there without said idiot user napsters noticing it. Then later when they go back to listen and discover they have to download WiMP to listen to it outside of the napster application.. well, which do you think they'll choose? Look for and redownload the Creed song as an mp3, download Windows Media Player, or switch to Gnutella? I'm thinking the second; it's the least work.
Pity. I'd like to see napster dead; then something better would come along.
Word of advice to the free software community: you need to learn how to play the game of making support for your formats viral, and you need to learn to play the game of using The Blinking 12:00 Effect to your advantage. Microsoft is the master of both of these games, and you people are HORRIBLE at them. My first suggestion: start talking to apple about putting Ogg Vorbis support into quicktime. Maybe even volunteer to write a nice little LGPLed quicktime plugin that apple could start including. Then you'd have this great big ol' installed base. Installed bases are good. Really! Trust me, they are.
Re:Microsoft Authentication On Web Properties (Score:2)
Napster will be still able to download large amounts of audio files if this strategy is going where I've taken it. However, they will not be file you can play. You will have to use the Passport infrastructure to pay for these files to listen to them.
Integrating Hailstorm and
micropayments through Microsoft Billing Services.
I think there is a weak point in the whole scheme, and it's just here under our noses.
Everybody is treating Napster as if it were a big FTP server where everybody can download whatever she wants. But Napster, as any other P2P system, is nothing like that. It's mr. Joe Average who offers mrs. Jane Allthesame his hard drive's contents to share.
However, what is the incentive in sharing something that can't be used unless paid by the recipient (thus destroying the "community feeling")? Sharing has a cost, because it lowers mr. Joe Average's browsing capabilities. If what's shared can't be freely (as in beer) exchanged, (because it's encrypted and has to be paid extra for) there is very little reward for the "wasted" resources. Result: the sharing system would crumble for lack of offer.
This is not to say that the bleak scenario you're showing won't happen. Just that this piece (p2p networks) would not work under these conditions.
Microsoft's Desperation (Score:1)
If Microsoft killed off Napster, or killed off MP3 on Napster, the RIAA and its member companies would be so grateful that Windows Media would be made a standard format almost immediately. Microsoft isn't talking to Napster because they want to preserve online music - they're talking to Napster because they want to have a monopoly on streaming media.
Re:Microsoft's Desperation (Score:2)
To get decent results with streaming WindowsMedia (as compared to the static kind that would be used with Napster), you have to buy a specialized Microsoft streaming server, which runs on Windows. So you pay for the media server software and then pay for the OS. (Real will run on Unix and Windows, QuickTime on Mac and Windows, MP3 will stream from any signifcant platform.)
If Napster uses WMA exclusively, that will give Microsoft a huge lead over the competition and could put RealNetworks out of business. (Why use Real for streams if everybody has a WM player already for static audio?) If MP3, Real, and QuickTime are gone, everybody that wants to stream media has to run Windows servers. That turns the Windows desktop OS monopoly into a media monopoly, and turns the media monopoly into a streaming server monopoly... Once we start sliding down this slope, it's hard to stop.
And if you think the tools will still be free once WindowsMedia is the only codec, you're insane.
My point being, Microsoft wants to kill MP3 so it can make WindowsMedia the standard and make money selling servers and (eventually) selling tools that are now free. Plus the control it will have over us all, which is also a draw for them I'm sure.
Re:Hidden Motivation? (Score:1)
Re:Crippled tunes (Score:2)
Bzzzt! Wrong, we want free unlimited MP3 sharing... or we'll go and make it our-fscking-selves.
Dave
Microsoft is target of DRM lawsuit (Score:1)
I wonder how many of Microsoft's current and potential DRM partners are aware this is underway?
Re:Microsoft's Desperation (Score:1)
IE on solaris, used it abused it, played around with it, it sucked.
It crashed worse than Netscape and it displayed in this horrid shade of green in CDE. I ditched it and went back to Netscape in under a week.
Ran pretty well for a beta port on a low end SUN though...
Just for the record if any Microsoft employee is reading this (working on the next Halloween doc or something); I would buy Winux assuming DCOM support worked and MS Word was bundled with it. Also I would require as much compatability with the other distributions as is present within today's Linux distributions (say SuSE, Debian and Redhat). I would probably pay 100 - 150 GBP for this.
Re:Crippled tunes (Score:2)
I can't imaging Napster paying YOU to upload music but I can imagine you having your subscription reduced towards and all the way to zero by providing a service.
This probably only sounds good to me 'cos I'm on broadband.
Re:Well, it's official. Napster is day-uhd. (Score:1)
Why should we take away the artist's right to sign over the rights to his works? It's not like a creator is forced to sign a record deal. The means exist for self distribution already.
Gotta disagree with you there, man. If you want to be a financially successful recording artist, you must sign a contract given to you by one of the RIAA members. All the companies have -- for all practical purposes -- the same contract. (It amounts to a cartel, but don't tell them that!) The reason I think this right should be non-transferable is based on history; namely, that moneyed interests are able to suppress rights at the expense of the general welfare.
Wish I were more eloquent, but I hope this clears things up somewhat.
- Rev.Well, it's official. Napster is day-uhd. (Score:4)
I know this sounds trite, but I think we should all mark our calendars as today being the day that Napster finally sunk into the grave, or at least sunk into a coma from which it will likely never recover. Yes yes, people have been saying this for months in relation to other events surrounding Napster, and I am not saying that those claims weren't true. But today it has come to light that Napster is sleeping with the enemy from the technology side, not just the legal side. They now have absolutely no moral leg to stand on insofar as the "Free as in Beer" philophy goes.
Sad. There are alternatives available, to be sure, but none have the simplicity of Napster. I'm even having a hard time finishing my Bill Hicks collection, goddammit!
Side note: I think that we should push for legislation that allows for a person (or persons) to be designated as the "primary creator" of any given work, without possiblity of that role being signed over to an Evil Industrial Corporation. If at any time that person(s) or their heirs wishes to release the work into the public domain, they can. Or they could stipulate in their will that works X, Y and Z are in the public domain, but A and B aren't.
Too simple to work.
- Rev.Re:Napster is dead (Score:1)
When you search for video, you get a very interesting thing: you get the ratios in which people ACTUALLY HAVE AN INTEREST in video. These ratios will change as the gnutella user-base becomes more diverse, of course.
One thing that gets me though, is the violent videos. There are clips of all kinds of atrocities from rape to murder. My cache grabs many of these, and sometimes I can't tell what they are without looking at them.
Ye gods, what horror. I get a knot in my stomach, and want to do something to stop what I'm watching, but all I can do is hit the stop button, I can't help the person who is, almost certainly in most of these cases, already dead.
If anyone wants to put together a foundation for paying people to research stopping such things (or an existing anti-violence group wants to start paying attention to gnutella), I will gladly pay into it.
At the very least (and I grant that this is hardly even a band-aid), people, please label the crap out there. I'd love to configure my cache to ignore files with certain keywords, but nothing is consistant.
Re:Napster is dead (Score:2)
I have enough karma to burn on good causes like anti-violence, so I guess I'll keep doing so. I'll be polite and as on-topic as I can, but I think that this is an issue that deserves to be heard.
Re:Drag it out... (Score:1)
--
Re:Swapster (Score:1)
Something about M$ Bob left big, nasty, gaping emotional scars that "Faces of Death" never could.
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Re:Microsoft Authentication On Web Properties (Score:2)
Re:Microsoft's Desperation (Score:2)
Fucking commies.
Re:Microsoft Authentication On Web Properties (Score:2)
Microsoft is a giant corporation: Objective truth
Microsoft has billions of dollars: Objective Truth
Microsoft has tens of thousands of programmers: Objective Truth
Microsoft has millions of computers: Objective truth
Microsoft is unethical: Subjective (but true).
Saying Microsoft is unethical is much like saying Timothy McVeigh is unethical. You judge a corporation just like you'd judge an individual. You look at how they behave and speak and then form a conclusion. I have looked at how MS behaves and talks and have judged them to be unethical at best (downright evil at most). I believe that some people are evil and somehow the evil people in MS have risen up in the ranks. If these people were not billionaires they would be torturing cats and dogs in the backwoods (who know maybe they do that anyway).
Re:Microsoft Authentication On Web Properties (Score:2)
Somehow the the entire news media in every country of the world conspired to report lies about microsoft. Not one newspaper stood up and told the truth. All those court cases yea they were fraudulent too. All those lawsuits MS lost that was a conspiracy too. Those lawsuits that MS settled for hundreds of millions of dollars were because just got tired after several rounds of losing appeals.
Get a grip willya.
I would NEVER EVER work for an unethical company. I know that no matter how small your role if you work for an evil organization you are contributing to evil. The guy who cleans the toilets in the KKK headquarters has to share some burden of the moral responsibility for what the KKK does. I know people who used to work for MS and they tell me stories, I was offered a job there myself but I told them to go screw themselves (and got a higher paying job anyways).
Re:Microsoft Authentication On Web Properties (Score:2)
Hitler and Stalin killed millions of people which was an henious act but only effected a small percentage of the people on this planet. Those people got killed but the rest of the world went on pretty much business as usual.
MS does not kill people instead what they kill is what makes us human. Here is what I mean.
What separates us from animals is the ability to transmit information not only between your peers but to your offspring and future generations. The ability to educate our young and accumulate knowledge throughout the millenia is why we are the dominant species on this planet. Without that ability you are just a monkey.
Microsoft is attacking your ability to own, transmit, receive or otherwise participate in the global exchange of information. Not software but information. They have taken the lead in developing ebooks which expire, music which can only be played on approved hardware and have claimed ownership of a HUGE amount of traffic that flows through their web properties. Not only that but they are poised to control all your private information as well with the upcoming
Hitler killed people Bill gates is trying to kill what makes us human in the first place.
In the end Hitler put a bullet in his own brain I hope Bill can do the same favor for humanity.
Swapster (Score:1)
NOTE TO STUPID PEOPLE: PSEUDONEWS IS FAKE. "PSEUDONEWS" LITERALLY MEANS "FAKE NEWS".
THIS IS NOT REAL.
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Re:Microsoft Authentication On Web Properties (Score:2)
I did my homework on the Digital Certificates within Internet Explorer 5.x for Digital Rights Management.
What I found were CA's for every major credit reporting agency (including Equifax), electronic billing providers, and a few Microsoft ones, besides the usual Thawte and Verisign Ones. Deustche Telekom even has two CA's in IE 5.x.
Microsoft has been testing time-limited WMA files for about two years now. Windows XP and WMP8 include full DRM, among other 1984-eqsue identification tools.
.NET, from what I have seen and played with, does have the APIs possible to generate a unique ID for a computer. That's the issue with Windows XP now, because it uses the hardware to generate a GUID-type string identifying the computer (and it changes with a hardware install). Windows XP adds significant identification abilities to
Combine the two (and there are a LOT of things that Internet Explorer does to a system, the most significant being the DRM and installation of GTE CyberTrust and Equifax certificates), with the digital certificate generated for each user of a Windows 2000 or XP system (which is why IE 5.00 broke Windows 2000, because it overwrote RSABASE.DLL and RSAENH.DLL, the two DLL's Microsoft uses in IE for SSL and Digital Certificates for 56-bit and 128-bit encryption, respectively. When these are broken, Windows 2000 or XP cannot authenticate a user.).
Microsoft has a complete DRM system in place capable of authenticating users, computers, installed software, and the capability to bill for it through MSN premium services. In addition, the acquisition of Great Plains software may provide Microsoft the ability for companies to integrate billing for these services (aka micropayments) through MSN bCentral (which is also going
Napster may be interested in using this system of theirs to provide a way of keeping the file-sharing while charging to actually listen to the song through Windows Media Player 8 and Windows XP. It's all about money. This solution makes the RIAA happy, Microsoft happy, and Lars happy. It makes a lot of people who use Napster for MP3 files really pissed off. Most of all, it will make OpenNap, Gnutella, Freenet, and whatever cDc comes up with very popular.
Just doing my homework on IE (and also worked on a PKI project here that involved certificates).
Microsoft Authentication On Web Properties (Score:5)
First, eBay signed up to use
Secondly, Microsoft integrated a complete Digital Rights Management system into IE 5.0 and above, with respective authentication in Windows 2000/XP, and a patch for Windows 98/Me.
If you don't believe me and have IE, go to Tools, Internet Options, Content Tab, Certificates, and click on the Advanced Button on that tab. When you look at Intended Purpose, you will see Digital Rights as a certificate option (among many other things).
Third, Microsoft is and has been in with the RIAA and assorted other agencies to promote Digital Rights, and has their own WMA format to do so. They can use certificates to provide strong authentication on media files.
Fourth, the Passport infrastructure that Microsoft is building (which encompasses
Fifth, they can also use their commerce infrastructure for micropayments, or leverage the common billing authority they are working on with
Fifth, bringing Napster aboard means that Microsoft can track all files, and therefore all users, by giving them a centralized Passport ID (which you already have). They will have the ability, in Windows 2000 and XP, to link that to a root certificate that identifies your computer, users on it, and files you have downloaded.
Napster will be still able to download large amounts of audio files if this strategy is going where I've taken it. However, they will not be file you can play. You will have to use the Passport infrastructure to pay for these files to listen to them. Integrating Hailstorm and
eBay is switching to the model too, which scares me in that many popular sites seem to be more than willing to cede control of user authentication to a central authority that I would never trust with my personal information. Yahoo does the same thing, but they don't associate a user with a machine, hardware, registered software products, or personal information to the level that Microsoft does.
Napster joining with Microsoft is a BAD thing. It's one more step for Passport/.NET/HailStorm before they end up controlling a large portion of the sites on the net through their services. That, and it would make Napster pay, which would only make Lars happy
Re:Microsoft Authentication On Web Properties (Score:1)
I have a very old IE 5 (v5.00.2314.1003, from a CD M$ handed out in early 1999), and while it has the Certificates stuff, it does *not* have any "Digital Rights" option. Thanks for yet another good reason NOT to update this beast (which I never let go out in public anyway, since it can't be trusted).
oh! is that how it works. (Score:1)
Re:Swapster (Score:1)
Maybe its not as fake as you think. Swapster Development [gogeek.org]
Re:MAYBE THEY SAID THIS (Score:1)
This is all I have to say [eventsounds.com]
--------
"Counting in octal is just like counting in decimal--if you don't use your thumbs."
Re:Crippled tunes (Score:2)
They've even considered a method of paying the artists/creators/whatever of the files within MojoNation.
Unfortunately, MojoNation is about as useful as Freenet in its current form (which isn't saying much at all). Making a usable file sharing system out of it is a long way off, and even further off is getting the Mojo economy to work.
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Re:Where there's a will.... (Score:1)
I've had great trouble finding such songs on Napster.
Re:On the bright side... (Score:1)
Re:A drop in downloads? (Score:1)
They may also have some false positives slightly reducing traffic. *shrug*
I bet the wife was pissed (Score:1)
Mrs. Microsoft: Don't Hi Honey, me! Where were you yesterday?
Microsoft: Yesterday? Nowhere!
Mrs. Microsoft: Don't lie to me! You were with Napster.
Microsoft: I swear, we didn't do anything!
Mrs. Microsoft: Oh, just like you didn't to anything with Corel?! Don't talk to me. I don't even know who you are anymore. I want a divorce.
--
Re:One more time: (Score:1)
This would be a pretty good point... (Score:1)
Better luck next time.
Re:Microsoft's Desperation (Score:1)
I see where Microsoft's plan is... and its just like IE. They give away the Windows Media tools (recording and playback) but they will only run on Windows (more specifically, Windows XP). Side note: did Microsoft ever release a *NIX version of IE? They had announced on for Solaris a while ago...
Re:Microsoft's Desperation (Score:2)
Gee, is that speech or beer? Read this maze of twisty license agreements [microsoft.com], all alike.
Oh, wait, did you research this? No? Okay, I'll paste it in for you:
Any guesses in what's that EULA? (Hint: if there is a EULA at all, you can't do what you want with it.)
So what happens if WMA completely replaces MP3, and you try to make your own WMA hardware/sofware that MS doesn't like? Answer: squashed like grape [imdb.com].
about the editorial comment... (Score:1)
Security? Please. (Score:1)
Oh no, now I'll have to worry about Microsoft-developed security on my MP3s downloaded from Napster servers? Whatever shall I do?
Please. Talk about a day late and a dollar short...
Zaphod B
Hmm... (Score:3)
Microsoft: "...and that's how we stole the idea for a GUI."
Napster: "Kinda like we let people steal music?"
Microsoft: "Sure. Now you should introduce some nasty bugs in your software, then charge $50 or more for an official upgrade."
Napster: "But our software is free??!?"
Microsoft: "Then just change your servers and make them break older versions."
Napster: "damn. That's genius."
Microsoft: "yea, wait till we see how we steal your software and 'invent' file sharing in Windows XP."
Re:Well, it's official. Napster is day-uhd. (Score:1)
Re:Hidden Motivation? (Score:2)
=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\
Re:WMA (Score:2)
=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\
Re:Who would (Score:2)
=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\
Very Cool (Score:5)
Re:Very Cool (Score:1)
-Erik
Re:Well, it's official. Napster is day-uhd. (Score:1)
Re:Well, it's official. Napster is day-uhd. (Score:1)
The original poster said we should not allow artists to sign with a label at all. This is what I disagreed with. Nobody forces an artist to sign a contract. They sign contracts because they think they will help their careers. To say that an artist can't sign a contract is absurd. Why should the government have the right to tell me who I can sign agreements with?
Re:He never said that! (Score:1)
When they say... what they really mean is... (Score:1)
When they say "Equity position" what they really mean is "We're going to put a minority of 900 pound apes on your board of directors, and if you don't do what we want, they will sit on you."
Re:Hidden Motivation? (Score:1)
Napster "Only on Windows XP" (Score:2)
This is potentially bad for any non-microsoft OS user (be it Linux, Mac, Be, whatever)
A good match (Score:3)
Can you imagine U2's next album on the Microsoft label? Yikes!
The question is, which is worst? The current labels or Microsoft?
Too bad they're not doing it - it would be a very interesting battle.
Denial is a sure sign of truth. (Score:2)
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page [cavalrypilot.com]
Re:Hidden Motivation? (Score:3)
Napster already supports WMA trading.
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Am I the only Slashdotter who is sick and tired of losing 9000 karma points every time they moderate?
MS vs RIAA (Score:5)
RIAA: "No, all your MP3s are belong to us."
MS: "NO!! All your MP3s are belong to us!!"
RIAA: "All your MP3s are copyright to us!!"
MS: "YOU are belong to us. How much?"
RIAA: "One legal threat and a dozen long drawn-out court battles!"
MS: "You are on the path to bankruptcy. You have no chance to survive make your time."
(Meanwhile Linux users watch the ongoing battle of the titans, consuming lots of popcorn and soda and cheering with joy.)
Where there's a will.... (Score:3)
Re:Hidden Motivation? (Score:2)
Check the Nightcap discography [discographynet.com] from the real Jethro Tull.
He was trolling way back in 1973. :)
A drop in downloads? (Score:3)
If the economy is going down the crapper, wouldn't the use of free services go up? Or maybe people stopped using Napster once they cancelled their DSL subscription, because the economy is going down the crapper.
.
Re:Hidden Motivation? (Score:2)
Re:Crippled tunes (Score:2)
Re:Microsoft Authentication On Web Properties (Score:2)
Where did you get this information? My docs on .NET say nothing of the sort (that they'll go to that level of data mining).
Re:Microsoft Authentication On Web Properties (Score:2)
Re:Microsoft Authentication On Web Properties (Score:2)
Or, like most people, are you simply making subjective statements based off news *you heard a certain way* during the trial proceedings? News corporations taint stories the way they feel like it -- that much is known.
I'm not saying Timothy McVeigh is ethical, but I don't think we as a society have a right to judge from the information we're given. Same with Microsoft.
Re:Microsoft Authentication On Web Properties (Score:2)
Hitler was evil. Saddam Hussein (to an extent) was evil. Microsoft is a company. They may carry out practices you don't APPROVE OF, but evil is a completely different assumption.
If competitiveness and striving to take out your competitor is evil, you may as well throw in Sun, Oracle, and *gasp* the legions who follow Linux.
here we go again (Score:2)
I am sure folks submitted it before the weekend.
So what gives, is it news or not? Especially since MS rejected the plan. As the story said:
Microsoft was said to be uninterested in such a deal, which isn't entirely surprising - acquiring Napster would bring Microsoft a valuable brand name, but one that wouldn't exactly endear it to the music industry. Far better to use Napster to promote its technology. If it works, and Napster's reputation is restored, Microsoft can buy the company then. If Napster dies the death - either because its fans reject the subscription service or the recording industry kills it - Microsoft can shrug its shoulders and say it was only a technology provider.
This is news? Look at the surprise on my face.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire [eplugz.com] comic strip
It's all a big conspiracy... (Score:2)
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
DRM FUD (Score:3)
Advantages for Consumers
Digital distribution offers consumers a convenient way to access their favorite content at any time. Consumers will also be able to access higher quality media on the Internet because content providers using DRM will be more willing to make such content widely available. Also, the DRM licensing scheme protects consumers from inadvertently pirating a file: Consumers can be confident that the media they receive is authentic material, and they have acquired it in a legitimate manner.
Of course, this should read:
Advantages for Consumers
None.
Crippled tunes (Score:5)
Yes, they will probably try to foist .wma's on the user base. No, they won't succeed, I don't think.
Repeat after me: flat rate, unlimited MP3 sharing or NOTHING. The model is ASCAP: royalties are apportioned by share of downloads.
(!MP3 || !unlimited || !flatrate) == !Napster.
Napster is dead (Score:2)
Re:Napster is dead (Score:2)
You're joking, right?
Re:Well, it's official. Napster is day-uhd. (Score:2)
Actually I have found that a new file sharing protocol Morpheus [musiccity.com]is a MUCH improved version of Gnutella that boasts all of the simplicity of Napster and actually performs pretty decently. If I were a betting guy, and luckily I am, I would venture to say that this is the future of P2P -- at least for the time being. (That is, until freenet becomes as user-friendly as napster)...
Re:Napster is dead (Score:2)
"// this is the most hacked, evil, bastardized thing I've ever seen. kjb"
I say good (Score:2)
What I'm trying to say is that you can't set up a company to help distribute "copyrighted" material on the internet. It has to remain a peer to peer undergound thing. That way there is no target. The model for something like Hotline or WinMX can never be destroyed. Who cares if they attack hotline software? There are numerous other open source clients. Who cares if they take down trackers? We can put up new ones / static IPs.
"Rights management" requires biodegradable media (Score:2)
I have no plan whatsoever to buy any hardware, software, or media that is not MP3-friendly.
Nothing will stop these people from adding encryption to restrict "fair use", but nothing is going to make me buy their product, either.
I propose a law that requires all encrypted CDs to be made on biodegradable media. Since the unsold products are going to be competing with DIVX discs for landfill space, we might as well be proactive.
WMA (Score:2)
Re:Where there's a will.... (Score:3)
Sure, there are plenty of geek-friendly Napster alternatives for getting MP3s, but the sheer number of folks that were using Napster pre-lawsuits meant you could pretty much find ANY song you wanted, right when you wanted it, even in really obscure genres. While geeks will still have the tools to fileshare, the extremely reduced number of participants means far less choice in terms of finding what you want exactly when you want it.
The number of users was the true power of napster...And unfortunately, any service that manages to hit that number of users in the future will have the media companies coming down on them like a ton of bricks...Advanced systems like Freenet can (somewhat) avoid the law using technology, but will they ever be simple enough to use that they gain the type of numbers that make the service really useful? Time will tell.
digital protection for all you ereet napstah kidz (Score:5)
So what does this mean? Well, if digital protection stops 95% of users from copying an mp3, it won't matter a pair od fetid dingo's kidneys to the music theft scene. One lucky champ will manage to get a decent sounding version somehow, and then everybody will trade that. In this scenario, copy prot only serves to slow down the trade of cds among friends, which most of the industry agrees should be encouraged (or at least not discouraged).
To Recap: Napster users aren't particularly picky and all tend to grab the first example of a track they find. Digital protection will serve only to alienate the end user, making him or her more reliant on Napster and less able to deal with his or her own music. Result: more Napster usage, further development of the music release scene and less money for the music industry (namely, the money spent on the copy protection infrastructure).
The only solution is freedom...I'm whistling "unforgiven" right now...
Re:WMA (Score:2)
It will have the ancillary effect of requiring more people to use WMP, but more importantly it will get MS in good with the RIAA people and convince them that WMP is the answer to all of their copy-protection questions (right now they're less than sure of it.)
Re:Microsoft's Desperation (Score:2)
Yes, but if you were a record label or a software company and wanted to use these products in a serious commercial operation, you would get the "professional" tools and pay MS accordingly. MS makes their tools available to users like you and me, so we can all play with them and say things like "hey, MS is cool cause they give away free stuff".
They're certainly not investing millions promoting their system to the record companies in order to give it to them free. They're willing to make things free to end users for a while, in hopes of creating a user base.
Re:Hidden Motivation? (Score:3)
MP3s wasn't really optimized for use as a low-bandwidth format. They sound decent somewhere from 128-256K, and that's about it. Fortuitously, this is exactly the level that most people are interested in. Once you're passing about multi-megabyte files, you're willing to trade some bandwidth for a common, widely implemented standard. The people who were already in the (arguably of passing importance) low-bandwidth space, RealAudio, weren't any better than MS as far as proprietary technology goes, so who really cares if MS shuts them out (well...)
What made MP3 popular is its availability. MP3 proved that as long as one decent codec is a standard and is freely available as code, it will proliferate and become popular. I think MS building an alternative into their OS will not change things too much, especially if it's a restrictive alternative.
Headlines (Score:3)
In other news, "Farmers to use Foxes to guard Henhouses."
Re:like i said before (Score:2)
Re:Hidden Motivation? (Score:5)
Jethro
That's too bad. If you were then you'd be "Jethro Troll"...
*ignoring groans from audience*
Re:Microsoft's Desperation (Score:2)
Which professional tools are these? I've worked with WMA for some time now, and I'd be very surprised if you could find any tools that Microsoft makes for WMA encoding, manipulation or encryption that you can pay for. Some software companies like sonic foundry and adobe have included windows media support in their commercial software... but not with any licensing that goes back to Microsoft.
For those who are still confused, Windows Media is a platform play. They don't charge for the software components, but they do get two advantages. First is that most of their software only runs on Microsoft OS's, encouraging the use of windows 2000 among content creators and servers that might have otherwise been on macs and linux. Second is the control of the player. If Windows Media were to really take off, WM Player has the ability to be like Office is now. It currently works on Windows/Mac/Solaris, but would provide a powerful stick to co-opt new OS's or keep control over existing platforms.
Re:Microsoft's Desperation (Score:2)
Microsoft would offer napster cash and/or marketing assistance to use windows media.
Secondly, if MS does make Windows Media Rights Management the de facto standard for DRM, there's nothing to stop them from changing their business model, and requiring content providers to pay for different levels of protection.
While this is true, I would point out that they still don't charge for internet explorer.
Who isn't buying napster these days? (Score:3)
Napster just isn't an attractive property. With a deal price with 8 zeros after it, not to mention the potential of huge civil liabilities, no one is opening their checkbook. No surprise there.
This is actually interesting for two reasons: First, is napster persuing an approach where they seed all the content? It's certainly possible, as even if they included a WMA encoder and ripper in the package, one would assume that napster themselves would have to receive the file afterwards to encrypt it with microsoft's DRM tools, as I doubt they'd want to have the consumers generate the private keys for each encryption. Easier to just provide the files in the first place. But at that point, you have nothing more than a slow, complicated website that sells music on the back of my own bandwidth. I'm sure I feel like a lot of the rest of you: No Thanks, Napster.
Also interesting from the leak is that Napster is still shopping for technology for it's secure launch. I don't know about you, but when my "Summer launch" project is still selecting core technology in may, I'm not thinking about a summer launch anymore.
And while someone may point out that they could just be incorporating WMA playback into the engine... The windows media SDK's all have easy licensing terms and are downloadable over the Internet. No power meetings required.
Re:Microsoft's Desperation (Score:5)
This statement is blatently false. Did you even try to do any research? Perhaps you are thinking of Real? Microsoft's player, encoder, and DRM tools are all available for free. Almost everything can be instantly downloaded over the internet.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/ [microsoft.com]
Drag it out... (Score:5)
On the bright side... (Score:4)
I wrote this article (Score:2)