=====================================================================
THE INDUSTRY STANDARD'S
B E A T S H E E T
The Latest Digital Music News - and It's Free
=====================================================================
For more on digital music, visit
The Standard's Media & Marketing page:
Tuesday, July 17, 2001
TOP STORY:
* The Dickens Theory
NET NOISE:
* OpenP2P.com
BEATS:
* Napster: What's the Alternative?
DOT DOT DOT:
* FullAudio Hooks Up With EMI ... Napster, Metallica and Dr.
Dre Kiss 'n' Make Up ... MusicMatch Layoffs, Settlement ... SFX
Gets New Name
SOUND OFF:
* This week's question: Should we deny recognition of the
copyrights of those who create works in cyberspace? Why or why
not?
/=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=advertisement
=-=-=
THE STANDARD GOES WIRELESS! Now you can get The Standard's cutting
edge
Internet Economy news and information delivered straight to your
Web-enabled phone or pager. Whether you log on for breaking
news,
stock quotes, or company and people information, you can now retrieve
critical intelligence on the Internet Economy anytime, anywhere you
go.
Just enter "thestandard.com" on your key pad to get The Standard's
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=/
TOP STORY
~~~~~~~~~
The Dickens Theory
Law professor David Post finds a historical precedent for the
online copyright issue in the way American writers lobbied for the
rights of Charles Dickens more than a century ago.
By Julene Snyder (julene@well.com)
It's a safe bet that the words "Metallica" and "Charles Dickens"
were never used in the same sentence before David Post came
along.
The Temple University law professor's talk on solutions to the
digital-music copyright dilemma at the MP3 Summit on Thursday
might have been more sparsely attended than some other events at
the conference. (See
the solution he proposed - that consumers need to decide for
themselves that fair compensation for intellectual property is in
their best interest - was one of the most compelling, clearly
articulated arguments at the event.
It's easy to see why Post was invited to speak at the MP3 Summit.
Besides being an impassioned speaker, his credentials are
simultaneously impressive and quirky: He's the co-founder and
co-director of the Cyberspace Law Institute, ICANNWatch and
Disputes.org, with a previous career as a physical anthropologist,
during which he spent years studying the feeding behavior of
yellow baboons in Kenya. In his current guise, he frequently
comments about Internet law on programs such as TV's "Lehrer
News Hour" and NPR's "All Things Considered." As if that
weren't enough, his bio proudly concludes that he "plays guitar,
piano, banjo and harmonica in the band Bad Dog."
While we'll leave the merits of his banjo-picking aside for now,
Post makes a strong case for looking to the past when it comes to
the future, at least as far as the intricacies of digital copyright
are
concerned. Take Charles Dickens, for example.
In the United States in the mid-19th century, copyright laws of
other countries did not apply and, consequently, work by English
writers such as Dickens was freely reproduced, distributed and
shared. Post's view is that the author was as angry about copyright
smuggling then as Metallica is today about pirated music in
cyberspace. At the same time, the lack of international copyright
laws was quashing competition in the U.S.: "American authors
were finding it was hard to compete with Dickens here in the
United States," Post argued. "Who would pay a dollar for Melville
when you could get Dickens for a nickel?" He said that ultimately
Americans were persuaded that Dickens' copyright should be
respected in the U.S.; Congress passed the International Copyright
Act in 1891, which for the first time, protected the rights of
foreign works in the U.S.
He says the same should eventually happen in the current debate
on copyright in the physical world vs. cyberspace. "The moral of
the story is that the inhabitants of cyberspace have to be
persuaded that it's in their interest to grant recognition to the
foreign copyrights of Metallica." He suggests a way to speed up
the process: If people refuse to recognize physical-world
copyrights on works in cyberspace, then works created for the
Web should get the same treatment. For example, he says, if you
make Napster's software freely available to everyone - with or
without the company's consent - a call for reciprocal copyright
protection of intellectual property might well follow.
While that scenario sounds far-fetched, it's clearly time to take a
break from the bombast and come up with some workable
solutions to the copyright conundrum. And Post has come up with
a good jumping-off point.
/=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=advertisement
=-=-=
Nominate your favorite company for The Industry Standard's
Business Transformation Awards, to be announced in October.
Click on the url below for more information.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=/
NET NOISE
~~~~~~~~~
OpenP2P.com
Just about six months ago, the O'Reilly Network - which describes
itself as "the essential portal for developers interested in open and
emerging technologies" - launched OpenP2P.com, a site promising
analysis and news coverage of peer-to-peer (P2P) technology. I'm
happy to report that it kept its promise with a vengeance; here
you'll find not only the latest news collected from sources around
the world, but analysis of the fast-moving digital music landscape,
lists and links galore. The site also has the type of organizational
flair that makes it a snap to find the particular topic of interest.
You'll find articles with intriguing titles such as "Use P2P, Go to
Jail. Any Questions?" and "Napster Service: 2Legit 2Quit." You'll
also dig up a collection of P2P Weblogs, which let visitors hop
around with ease and gauge the cultural zeitgeist in the file-sharing
community. O'Reilly is hosting a peer-to-peer conference in the
fall, but aside from a few plugs here and there, the site shows
admirable restraint when it comes to drumming up business. For
those who want to play catch-up in the rapidly changing
peer-to-peer arena, or those who've been keeping up all along,
OpenP2P.com keeps the information flowing, fast, furious and,
yes, free.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BEATS
~~~~~
What's the Alternative?
With Napster all but gone, a wealth of other options has sprung up
... or so we're told.
Some might say Napster going dark is just-desserts for file-traders
who temporarily lost their ethical sense, but word on the street is
that the kids are still wild for the free-digital-music thang. Those
with bandwidth and time on their hands can still nab just about
anything their heart desires. Here are a few of the many
file-sharing options for those wondering what to do with all that
space on their hard drive:
Kazaa: Silly name, alternately spelled KaZaa and KaZaA, but the
Web site is Dutch, so I guess it's entitled. The San Francisco
Chronicle quoted a 20-year-old college student saying the service
- also known as Morpheus - is "better than Napster at its peak."
BearShare: This site - whose cuddly name should appeal to
Deadheads - bills itself as the "world's best Gnutella client." Going
to the site makes that annoying X10 wireless-camera ad pop up.
It's currently touting the "family filter," which hides Dad's
propensity for hardcore porn from the prying eyes of Johnny and
Susie.
iMesh: Again, what's with the lame name? This site promises that
when you exit, "all your partially downloaded files are saved, to
be resumed from the exact place they stopped next time you
connect." Users with security concerns, beware; visitors are
cautioned that the iMesh software exposes users to lack of privacy
and such.
Toadnode: Chosen for this list solely on the basis of its funny
moniker, this site offers a promise that an official preview version
of the software - described as an "extensible platform for
peer-to-peer networks - will be released sometime this month.
Fatbubble: The angle here is instant messaging: "You and your
best IM buddies can share where you go on the Web, what you
find and what you think about it ... automatically." If you don't
want your buds knowing everything you do online, no problem,
just turn on your invisibility button. Annoyingly, your friends can
comment on what you're up to, but you can rag on them, as well.
Kidding aside, the plethora of alternative peer-to-peer sites is
inevitable. But even though nabbing new music for free has its
charms, in the long run most people want to do the right thing and
would pay for access to music they want - if only there were a
place to do just that.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
DOT DOT DOT
~~~~~~~~~~~
FullAudio Hooks Up with EMI ... Napster, Metallica and Dr. Dre
Kiss and Make Up ... MusicMatch Layoffs, Settlement ... SFX
Gets New Name
FullAudio inked a licensing deal with EMI Recorded Music,
which FullAudio President and former BMG executive James
Glicker hopes would lead to deals with other labels before a
planned digital-music subscription service is launched. FullAudio,
of course, is in competition for this sort of service with MusicNet
and Pressplay. Get the full story at
>From the too-little-too-late department comes last Thursday's
news that Napster settled with Metallica and Dr. Dre in their
respective copyright-infringement lawsuits. While the financial
terms - if any - weren't disclosed, Napster promised to block all
tunes that the artists don't care to share. In Napsterland, this no
doubt passed as good news, especially given the previous day's
setback, wherein U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said
Napster can't reactivate its service until its filtering system
reaches
100 percent compliance, rather than the 99 percent that the
company had hoped for. In other Napster news, the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals gave the company until Aug. 9 to file an
emergency federal appeals court brief asking to go back online.
Read more about Patel's ruling at
>From the good-news-bad-news department came word Monday
that San Diego-based MusicMatch reached a deal with the record
industry - which won't be much comfort to the 25 percent of the
company's staff who were recently laid off. Although 13 record
labels filed suit against the company last month for alleged
copyright infringement, and though the company then filed a suit
of its own asking for clarification of rules regarding the
customization of its radio service, both sides withdrew their suits
... In its never-ending quest for global domination, Clear Channel
Communications announced last week that one of its subsidiaries,
the concert conglomerate formerly known as SFX, will henceforth
be known as Clear Channel Entertainment. SFX is a big player in
the live-concert arena; the company was bought by Clear Channel
for more than $4 billion last year. Clear Channel owns about
1,200 radio stations and owns or operates more than 70 concert
venues in the U.S. and Europe. In tangentially related news, the
concert trade magazine Pollstar came out with a midyear report
last week that showed that ticket sales to rock concerts and live
tours are down 12 percent from last year, which many attribute to
rising ticket prices. According to Pollstar, last year's average
price
was $43.75; prices for the first half of 2001 average $46.69.
/=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=advertisement
=-=-=
GET 4 FREE ISSUES OF THE INDUSTRY STANDARD
The Industry Standard is the only weekly newsmagazine devoted
to covering the New Economy--and you're invited to sample 4
issues--absolutely risk-free! Click on the url below to order
today.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=/
ERRATA:
~~~~~~~
Several readers wrote to inform us that Cathy Berberian was
mischaracterized in last week's review of the Web site Frank's
Vinyl Museum. She was an American mezzo-soprano who died in
1983. We regret the error.
SOUND OFF
~~~~~~~~~
This week's question: Should we deny recognition of the
copyrights of those who create works in cyberspace? Why or why
not?
E-mail your opinions to julene@well.com with "sound off" in the
subject line, and we'll print a selection of the responses in next
week's newsletter. Letters may be edited for clarity and length, so
keep them short and include your name and affiliation, if
any.
STAFF
~~~~~
Written by Julene Snyder (julene@well.com).
Edited by Michele Keller (mkeller@thestandard.com).
GET THE MAGAZINE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4 RISK-FREE issues at this URL:
GET MORE NEWSLETTERS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Industry Standard's newsletters cover technology, the media,
stock market, digital music and more. To SUBSCRIBE to other
newsletters, click here:
To unsubscribe, click here:
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For more information on advertising in The Standard
Newsletters, contact:
Erik VanderKolk (evanderkolk@thestandard.com)
FEEDBACK AND PROBLEMS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Send letters to the editor to letters@thestandard.com.
Please contact us with any problems:
customersupport@thestandard.email-publisher.com
Copyright 2001 Standard Media International