Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2000 8:45 PM To: discuss-...@doi.org Subject: Napster and DOI
Napster: the ultimate digital library Publishers of digital content should be interested in Napster. For those of you who don't follow the music industry, a quick description of Napster is in order. Napster is a mechanism for the distributed distribution of digital music that works by providing a centralized database of hyperlinks. College students have latched onto Napster as an easy way to share the music that they purchase or otherwise acquire with others. Napster turns a user's computer into a web server that delivers MP3 files to other users. The popularity of Napster has flooded the IP networks of a number of colleges, forcing them to ban the use of Napster. Although a number of lawsuits have been filed trying to shut down Napster because of its potential for copyright abuse, the music industry's war against Napster is one they have already lost, even if they win numerous legal battles. The genie is out of the bottle. New, unsigned bands are looking to Napster as a friendly, grassroots distribution mechanism in the tradition of the Grateful Dead's policy of encouraging the private taping of concerts. Students are using Napster the way previous generations used underground radio stations. The bottom line is that the music conglomerates have completely lost control of the next generation of their business. The fact that industry people still argue whether safeguards in SDMI are strong enough underscores the essential disconnect between the industry and their youngest customers. The music industry has many parallels with the books and serials industries; in fact, there are very strong parallels between Napster and the recent efforts to develop interoperable archives for technical articles. Let's look at some of the similarities and differences: Similarities: 1. Both are distributed content distribution schemes. 2. Both are catalyzed by uniform identifier systems. 3. Both are driven by grassroots rather than by incumbent industries. 4. The supply of content exceeds the demand. Differences 1. Rock Stars get megabucks from the music companies. Nobel winners are not significantly compensated by publishers. 2. Music is youth-driven; print is not. 3. Many Napster-enabled activities are clearly illegal. e-print archives are clearly legal. 4. Napster has no stored content, whereas archives have storage as part of their mission. It is interesting to note that DOI, which is being pushed by the STM publishing industry as a linking mechanism, will make the task of Napsterizing STM articles much easier. For the print publishing industry, the key to avoiding the fate of the music industry is to recognize early on which initiatives are likely to be conducive to orderly change in their industry, and to realize that the sort of control over distribution which existed in the past is a thing of the past. For example, the music industry has belatedly realized that RealAudio is a better alternative than Napster. In a similar situation, the Biomedical publishing community has raised a particular stink about PubMed Central, which will seem awfully benign in the face of the more Napsteresque publishing systems which are sure to arise. If you think this is a fantasy, read http://oss4lib.org/readings/docster.php Eric Hellman Openly Informatics, Inc. http://www.openly.com/ 21st Century Information Infrastructure LinkBaton: Your Shortcuts to Information http://my.linkbaton.com/