NAPSTER sits out there as a big fat non-moving target. As with most targets that are big and fat and don't move, chances are sooner or later it will be shot down. After all, look what one can do with NAPSTER: one can download, trade and burn on to CD, mini discs or MP3 layers copyrighted music without the artist or the record company seeing dime one.

Some big name artist have taken great exception to our ability to do this. Most notably the heavy metal band Metallica, who collected 300.000 user names from the Napster user base. Professing copyright infringement and alleging these users had downloaded their songs, they demanded Napster to remove or block them. Napster feeling the heat obliged and 300.000 users had to delete the free Napster software from their computers. The end result: they simply reinstalled it entering a different user name. Or even easier: Little software fixes started showing up all over the net that would automatically change your name for you. METALLICAvsNAPSTER.com is a great place to get the full story.

Regardless of what kind of bullets the likes of Metallica or the Recording Industry Of America (RIAA) shoot at Napster I can't help but be reminded of an old saying: The Cat Is Out Of The Bag!
Meaning of course the cat is loose and they will never be able to put the critter back into the sack. Best I can tell this is exactly what has happened to the music industry thanks to programs like NAPSTER. The cat is out of the bag and the end product is out of their control, or at least rapidity approaching that point. In fact, not only is the cat out of the bag but Chicken Little was right, the sky is falling, actually the sky has already fallen right square on to the heads of the record companies. Want proof? When you have people like Howie Klein, president of Reprise Records sayings things like:

"The people who are on the board of directors and in the upper-level management of Napster all belong in prison" (Newsweek 6/5/2000)

this serves as a good indication that he has personally shook the hand of Mr. Little.

There is good reason for record companies to worry. They could very well be looking at their demise when they look at these free MP3 distribution programs. There are those who said that the VCR would be the end of the movie industry. Not so. There are some fundamental differences between movies and music. Accessability for one and the time required to copy a movie for another. In my opinion perhaps the biggest difference is that one needs to sit down to watch a movie. How many times during the day can one sit down to do that. Unlike movies we listen to music while doing other things. Music is all around us, all the time, work or play. Unlike movies music does not demand our attention, it's the soundtrack by which we live.

If Napster were shut down tomorrow, there are any number of alternative means for collecting free MP3s from the net. Programs such as the file sharing Gnutella for one. What makes Gnutella so very different from Napster is the fact that it is simply and literally impossible to shut Gnutella down, can't be done. Why? Unlike Napster there is no central server with Gnutella. Every computer running this free software acts as a server. Just enter the name of the song you looking for and watch it search a user base that dwarfs Napster's. The best anyone can hope to do is maybe, just maybe be able to see the IP address from which the Gnutella user is accessing the net from.

All that having been said, I personally feel that Mr. Klein and persons of this ilk are missing the point. The problem is not Napster or programs like it, but rather the fact that so many consumers who are fed up with shelling out upwards of $20.00 for a CD that may have 2 cuts on it worth listening to. In addition there is no value added bonus to buying a CD off the shelf. There was a time when buying music meant you were also buying the art work of an album cover that went along with it. Also lets not forget about the horror stories we have all heard about record companies ripping off the artist. The buying public remembers this stuff.

I'm convinced that 98% of the people grabbing free MP3s would have no problem at all with putting some money into the pockets of the musicians for their songs and not into the coffers of the big record companies. The means by which to do this are coming, it's just a matter of time. Things in the music industry are changing, that much is for sure. It should be an interesting ride.