on 7/27/00 10:00 AM, Francesco Ventimiglia at francoventimiglia@iol.it
wrote:
> 3 out: Napster, Mac desktop and HackUser.
> I hate piracy but capitalism too.
>
> 1) Napster: I love original music and artists but I think 20 $ for a CD
> (Italy) is a theft (at least for my poor pockets)!
Everyone is crying over the Napster injuction. The Genie is out of the bag
here. A few points:
1) Its only a pretrial injunction. And, it didnt come cheap. the RIAA had to
post a 5 million dollar bond for loss of earnings should Napster prevail.
Obviously the judge sees some merit in Napster's argument. Remember also,
the RIAA had to post a similar bond in the Diamond Rio case. They *lost*
that bond.
2) As stated above, the genie is out of the bag. GNUTella, OpenNAP, etc.
Even *if* Napster is shut down, GNUTella and other open source derivatives
are still out there. And, they have no central point. You cant sue something
without a central point. They would have to sue everyone who owns a
computing device.
3) With the napster and DeCSS suits about to boil over, I see them going to
the supreme court. Its high time they cleared some of these sticking points
up. DCMA, UCITA, etc.
> 2) Mac OS X is removing the Mac desktop, the symbol of the Mac essence. This
> "Gatesian" move is very absurd and horrible.
Well, now, I dont agree with Apple throwing out 20 years of GUI rules and
research. However, a quick look at version tracker will assure you that
there are plenty of people *already* writing hacks to bring back what we are
comfy with, in regards to X.
> 3) Hack User or C&N: see Napster.
> I pay the shareware but not ridiculous thousands and thousands of dollars for
> so called commercial software. With low prices they could sell much more.
> These capitalistic rules are not for the rest of us.
This is a two fold argument. Yes, I think Adobe is committing highway
robbery. However, they have a point when they say piracy drives prices up.
The problem is, its a vicious circle. If everyone stopped pirating photoshop
tommorrow at noon, you would have to wait till noon, on the day that hell
froze over to see a price drop at Adobe.
The bottom line is, everyone has a right to be paid for what they create.
Everyone. Capitalisim isint a perfect system, but, its the system we use. It
isint always fair, it isint always right. Right now, its being perverted to
benefit big corporations. All anyone can do is write their congressperson.
=)
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