Does anyone own a VCR or a tape recorder?
Aren't these tools for copyright infringement?
Somebody said something about taking someone's ideas and using them.. Well I'm glad to know that I am in the presence of a guitar player who has never learned someone else's songs and only plays his own ideas. You probably agree with the shutting down of the OLGA too. What does this have to do with Napster? Nothing. Just like the rest of the string...

Music was available on line WAY before Napster and it will be available WAY after Napster too. Get with it or get over it...

Yeah, we had a similar discussion about tape recorders when they became available to the public. Difference: If you record a CD (at that time an LP) on cassette, you lose quality. With MP3 and CD writers the loss of quality is nearly non-existent.

I was one of those people banned by Metallica. But here's the thing, I don't listen to the radio much and when I do, the stations I listen to don't play Metallica. It was through mp3's that I first got a taste of Metallica. I know there's a lot of freeloaders out there who'll settle with mp3's and burned cd's, but I like to have the genuine article. I also don't mind shelling out the cash to support a band if I like their music. I was planning to get the Black album cuz I had heard a lot of good things about it and I dloaded some of the songs and was impressed. But now, forget about it. There's no doubt that bands lose some money because of programs like napster, but their fan base also geets a chance to increase exponentially. I have bought so many albums right now, because I heard mp3's of them. Radio isn't exactly the fairest of all communications mediums. You're going to wind up hearing the same song on a station at least 3 times a day. There's no variety anymore. And what happens if you have all their albums, but just burned the songs into mp3's so you could have easier access to the songs. Those people get screwed too.

On the extream end of your radio comment. I heard Chers' Do you Believe 11 times in one 12 hour shift. Thats just insane.

You said it John, VCRS, Tape Recorders, CD Burners, are just the beginning. The tip of the ice burg. If Those Rich Musicians want to protect their investment to such a degree, why not develop their own medium? For the money they spent nailing napster they probably could have developed their own format. But who would buy it? Devoted Fans?; Where I don't see any?

All you whinos out there that are complaining that you won't be able to download your Metallica music: It is their music, their copyright. THEY decide what they want done with their music. If they don't want people downloading their music, then they should be able to enforce that. If they don't want bootleggers, they should be able to enforce that. This whole thing is ridiculous. Why is MUSIC any different than any other form of work? Painters get paid for their paintings and their prints, actors get paid for their movies, the janitor at McDonald's gets paid for his cleaning. I'm amazed that people are at MAD at Metallica for trying to stop people from downloading their songs. I'm even more amazed that people think they are doing this for the money. Of course they are! If someone was stealing from you, what, it wouldn't matter? If you were Metallica? This is like the whole bootlegs-for-sale thing. All these people buying and selling Dylan bootlegs and they think that they have a RIGHT to. Oh, Dylan's already got the money. He doesn't need anymore. So, I'm going to make a little cash off of him. That's not something for the consumer to decide -- it's something for the artist to decide.

Rant over. Sorry.

Exactly. The studio recordings were theirs to begin with, and they should be able to control their creations as they see fit. As far as bootlegging, they allow this anyway. They realize that this is how their fanbase was made in the first place. They had no issue with live recordings on Napster, from what I understand. I just really irritates me when people think they should have a say in what artists do. I can't believe people have the nerve to get mad at Metallica for trying to keep control over their own music, especially new music that hasn't been released yet. I mean, imagine that you just spent six months pouring your heart and soul into making an album. Upon release, someone buys it, rips all the songs off and sends them out online. Theoretically, only one person would actually have to buy the album, the rest could have it for a buck, which the artist sees no money from. True, this isn't likely going to happen in the near future. BUT IT COULD. I think a line needs to be drawn now, so that something can be worked out that is mutually beneficial for all parties involved. In this case, Metallica is trying to draw that line. I'm sure it could have been handled better, but anyone can criticize something after it happens. I think Metallica was trying to do what they thought was right for all musicians, not just themselves, so that everyone can receive credit, and compensation (the music business is still a business) for their art. I completely support Metallica.

Just to clear things up, not only did Metallica get thousands of users banned from napster, they are currently trying to run napster out of business. The service Napster provides is like trying before you buy, how else can you sample songs before you hear them? Someone on a previous post made a good point, radio is so commercialized, youll hear blink182 a hundred times and maybe one song that youre interested in in a day, how are you supposed to judge an entire album on one song that you hear? If i had a chance to sample Load before it was released, i sure as hell wouldnt have bought it. Maybe thats why Metallica wants to get rid of Napster, otherwise people will wise up to how crap their music has become. Theyll pay for their actions, though, theyve lost an enormous amount of fans and respect among musicians everywhere.

On a side note, ill paraphrase an article i read. In the 1980's, the human mind was determined to be a media storage device, much like tapes and vcrs. Therefore, if you hear a metallica song, remember it, and sing it to yourself while youre walking down the street, watch out, cause they can sue you for copyright enfringement. Memorizing songs is technically the same as bootlegging them, so dont sing Ride the Lightning too loudly, Ulrich might sue.

-Ben

how else can you sample music before you buy it?

sound files off of the artist webpage..
or maybe go to a cd store, where most of the major ones have means of listening to cds before you purchase them.. both for free

Well i agree with the person who was talking about how for the music industry to really lose money every one who buys music from the store would have to be able to download MP3's and then have some way of playing them other places than their computer.

i dont think metallica had to do what they did, yea i can see how they have bills to pay and all but i'd like to see how much money they have actually lost because of napster. also if there going to go after napster why arent they going after all the other places you can get MP3's from? i know that would be nearly impossible so why try starting with Napster?
If metallica thinks that they can get rid of napster there wrong in the end whats going to happen is they will build up napster by showing it to the world on tv, the internet, and in magazines and newspapers, now people that would not have heard of napster will see that bit on the nightly news or the article in the paper will go get a user name and another napster user is born. so for the 300,000 people they had banned they just made possibly 2 times that get into napster.

Even if Napster was shut down someone else is going to put out another napster only with a diffrent name (which has already happend). so in the end what metallica did was neither right nor wrong, instead it was a wasted effort for them and a huge success for napster because the 300,000 that got booted will find ways to get back on and along with them will come more. Napster may not stay but the MP3 revolution is here to stay.

one more thing for the people that got banned im not sure how u can get back on but i kdo know that gettin a new user name will not do it because what napster sees is your IP address not your user name. some one posted some ways to get your IP address changed so you could give that a try if your one of the banned ones.