Rockbites: Napster’s promotion angle & out-of-court offers

newsarchive

October 2000 • Rockbites Alternative Daily

back to October 2000 index

Napster’s promotion angle & out-of-court offers
3 October 2000

In oral arguments yesterday in a San Francisco federal court, embattled software startup Napster, Inc. pushed the promotion angle. Their claims, stated in more coherent and mature (if not more compelling) terms as the case evolves, are that their Internet music sharing service is a valuable promotional tool for musical artists and that Napster’s users tend to purchase more rather than fewer CDs.
Napster’s lawyers did not address the deeper questions of Internet based copying of copyrighted materials that may be more desireable than commercially available product (in the near future, Napster-like software could be used to distribute studio bootlegs at higher than CD quality), or of artistic control of promotion.
Napster CEO Hank Barry revealed that his company has offered US$500,000,000 annually to the members of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as compensation for use of copyrighted materials, and that the RIAA has rejected the offer. Napster now claimes 32 million users. | Hank Barry statement | | Napster | | RIAA | | RIAA legal page | | top of page |

back to October 2000 index

click for Rockbites Home
	Copyright © 1998 - 2001 M. Jason. All Rights Reserved. Rockbites is not for profit and supports human rights. “Rockbites” and “Alternative Daily” are service marks of Rockbites. All names are the property of their respective owners. Send your feedback or questions to feedback@rockbites.com Send your press releases to press@rockbites.com Rockbites Alternative Daily contact information