Hey everyone, I'm a long time lurker on this list and I thought I'd throw in my opinion on this whole Napster thing. First of all, you guys are kidding yourself by trying to boycott the RIAA buy not buying CDs. There are way to many people that purchase CDs everyday for any online community to attempt to lower CD sales by a significant amount. They're not even going to notice! Napster being shut down doesn't make a damn bit of difference anyway. The theory is out and the floodgates are open. Shutting them down came too little and too late. If you're looking for a substitute program, try Gnutella. It's free. http://gnutella.wego.com/ As far as Napster hurting the artists...I find that hard to believe. Just because someone has lots of mp3s on their hard disk doesn't mean squat. How many people have the capability to convert mp3 to wav and then burn it onto a mix CD for themselves? A big chunk of Napster users are college kids hooked up to a fat pipeline in their dorm rooms. I find it doubtful that the majority of them will ever take mp3s off their computer to CD. Most people are still going to go and buy their favorite artists CDs so they can play them in their car or stereo or whatever else. Napster promotes for music than it does damage. There are NUMEROUS budding artists that get their music heard by distributing it on Napster. Shutting them down is going to hurt them the most. Artists shouldn't be relying on CD sales anyway. Take a look at the Grateful Dead and now Phish. Those bands allow recording of their shows for trade between fans. They're not the only bands, either. There are tons of them. These bands make their buck by TOURING. That's where you get your money. Not from CD sales. Trading their live music does wonders to promote bands. Phish is one of the highest grossing acts in the world right now. Did they get that way from their CD sales? HELL NO! Look at Dave Matthews Band. They got their following by allowing taping and look how huge they are. Metallica is way off if they think Napster is hurting their profits. They need to stop whining and start touring if they want to make a buck. Napster itself isn't illegal anyway. What goes on is, but they don't rip CDs and feed them to people. The internet cannot be controlled. When is the government and everyone else going to learn that? Taylor ----------------------------------------------------------------- To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
