A Disturbance in the Force
EmailWoe be to Grokster! In case you missed the story late yesterday, the download site is no more. Pummeled by major media companies — to say nothing of the Supreme Court — Grokster is paying a $50 million fine, and its homepage now says, “There are legal services for downloading music and movies. This service is not one of them.”
I’m sure that’s not the line for which they would like to be remembered. They promise to return soon — new, safe, and… legal.
Legal? When Napster et al appeared in the public consciousness five years ago, it was just a bunch of college kids sharing their CDs, right? The big music companies were just being paranoid, weren’t they? They beat them into the ground.
But the Groksters of the world — pirates, in the view of the music companies — were perhaps the greatest example of a disruptive technology since the advent of the web browser. People will never again buy music quite the way they used to. You can still go to a store and buy a “record,” but no longer are you stuck paying fifteen dollars for a CD when there’s only one three-minute track on it you really want. You don’t even necessarily buy a physical thing — just a digital file.
Much of this might well have happened, but not as quickly or traumatically for the industry if it hadn’t been for illegal file-sharing. Hardly to glorify them, but they did change the world.
- Ned
Space Station Flies Over Eastern U.S. at Night 
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The reason why SATAN and the DEMON rulers of this world have been disturb about the future is not that they have been trick by those in the women’s movement in going against the wrong one or andre the lucky one but the reason they are disturb about future
Posted by: ANDRE HIMES | November 10, 2005, 1:20 pm 1:20 pm
Not sure what Andre’s on about up there, but I’ll say this: The RIAA and MPAA/etc need to come to the understanding that the market has changed and is continuing to change, and in order to remain in that market (much less remain competitive) they will have to adapt. That’s the lesson history’s taught us: adapt or die. The legal and ethical aspects of the argument are, really, irrelevant in light of this simple fact: People have realised that they no longer have to shell out more money for filler music they don’t like. And they won’t.
So, Hilary Rosen, Jack Valenti, take notice. Adapt or die.
Posted by: Funky Wookiepants | November 13, 2005, 1:58 pm 1:58 pm
Why do dogs not get lung cancer?
They don’t get colds because they make vitamin C in their livers.
Is there something else that they do that prevents them from getting lung cancer?
They are certainly exposed to 2nd hand smoke.
Posted by: bac | November 18, 2005, 4:45 pm 4:45 pm