From: Tom Whore (tomwhore@inetarena.com)
Date: Mon May 01 2000 - 13:59:06 PDT
Chuck D gets the Difference. Napster for legal uses is a great idea for a
band, it would not be much differnet than MP3.COM, that is allowing the
artists and the listeners to share the music and responses.
As a tool for juarezing, its as usefull as a glory hole in an elevator.
" Rapper Chuck D throws weight behind Napster By John Borland
11:10 a.m. PT A few prominent musicians are beginning to rally around
MP3-swapping company Napster, which faces a potentially crippling series
of lawsuits from the recording industry and some artists. Rapper Chuck D,
who has long been one of the industry's most outspoken proponents of MP3
music, said today that he is hosting a song-writing contest on his
Rapstation.com Web site, aimed at highlighting how Napster can help
musicians.
"We want to draw attention to the positive aspects that Napster has to
offer artists," Chuck D said in a statement. "They need to realize that
they can benefit infinitely from what it has to offer." The news comes a
week after Napster said it would sponsor a free tour by hard rock group
Limp Bizkit. The tour is estimated to cost around $1.8 million--a hefty
price tag for a company that has announced just $2 million in venture
funding to date. Napster, which allows thousands of Internet subscribers
at a time to link their computers and easily share hundreds of thousands
of copyrighted MP3 music files, has thrown the recording industry back to
the defensive at a time when it was beginning--if slowly--to move pieces
of its business online. The Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) sued Napster late last year, contending that its software allowed
widespread online piracy. In recent weeks, musicians Metallica and Dr. Dre
have filed their own suits against the company and university students who
use the software, saying that swapping their works without pay is the
equivalent of theft. Chuck D is quickly taking on the same role for
Napster that he played in the early days of the MP3 debates. The rapper
left his longtime record label after disputes regarding digital
distribution and has since been a prominent advocate of artists' ability
to release music online independently and retain control of their careers.
"We should think of (Napster) as a new kind of radio--a promotional tool
that can help artists who don't have the opportunity to get their music
played on mainstream radio or on MTV," Chuck D wrote in an opinion article
published in The New York Times this weekend. A federal judge is expected
to make a preliminary ruling in the record industry's suit against Napster
any day."
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