Where does Napster think they're getting $1 billion?

[MrIncognito]

They aren't going to make that kind of money through Ads

[Cedric]

Who says they need to actually make that in revenue to pay it out? 150 million dollars a year is easy enough to raise for a cutting edge and prominent venture. If companies actually needed to have money in hand to use it, we'd still be watching grass grow for fun.

[Smackdaddy-OG]

"Copy-protection technology being developed by Bertelsmann subsidiary Digital World Services would prevent the songs from being copied to CDs or transferred to other devices such as portable MP3 players, Barry said. People might be able to perform these functions by paying more per month, he said. "

Fuck that, so I have to pay now and I have less freedom than I did before? It's doubtful they'll keep 2 out of 64 million users like they say they will. Some people will pay. They will notice less of a selection cause of all the people who left... More people will leave... and further down the spiral.

You give people access to an illegal distribution channel and call it a REVOLUTIONARY business model.

I've got an idea. How about a B2B portal for crack dealers? Crackster!

[maddog40oz]

Shawn Fanning is starting a new career: manure shoveler.

[MDoerr]

Kid (Fanning) comes up with good idea to beat the sytem. Government busts kid. Kid tries to make money off of it. Kid goes back to smoking weed and mooching off his dad

Case in point, there is no way in hell this will work in any way, shape or form...they are all screwed. Unfortunate for us just as much as them is what is most sad however.

[hipcheck]

I don't think Napster ever planned on making serious money, and if they know what's really going on, they know that the Music Biz is almost impossible to take down.

It IS certainly something, however, to say that you are one of the people behind a revolution, and the main Napsters will definitely go on to do other things, and be well paid!

[MrIncognito]

Yeah you know the dude who came up with it is set up for life financially.

[ishouldprobablyregister]

fanning wont be mooching off daddy much more anymore. He is a business man now, and whats more he could get a job like anywhere, people are looking for innovative minds such as his.

[Chris Cheung]

They're going to pull it out of their asses. It's where everybody keeps things these days.

Sheesh!

[James Daily]

The American legal system is anything but swift. However, I would still make sure that your mp3 collection includes all your must-haves within the next few months.

[Smackdaddy-OG]

He made a glorified IRC client to swap mostly illegal music. He was just naive enough/had the balls to do it. Believe me Napster itself is nothing innovative programming wise. Most people didn't write something cause they figured it was illegal.

He'll make a good figurehead or board member for marketing drones to talk about, but he's NOT one of the great programming minds of our time!

I give the WinAmp guy, Justin Frankel, more credit. He made the first extensible, high quality consumer audio player with plug-ins and nearly single handedly started a mass movement for "skinning" (yes it was there before, but never in a popular consumer app). Nothing he did was rocket science programming wise either, but he was definitely more innovative and his project is technically superior.

Originally posted by ishouldprobablyregister:
fanning wont be mooching off daddy much more anymore. He is a business man now, and whats more he could get a job like anywhere, people are looking for innovative minds such as his.



[This message has been edited by Smackdaddy (edited February 22, 2001).]

[MrIncognito]

Microsoft isn't very innovative either, but Gates stil has more money than God.

[illregistersoonerorlater]

bill gates is god

[Zeb]

touche

[Archduke Ferdinand]

To claim that microsoft isn't innovative is pure insanity. Did you use computers in the early 80s? It was a fucking joke. As far as the average computer user is concerned (the home user) windows was an absolute godsend. And when NT came it was also a great thing. Now granted the process has seemed to be "release flawed program to establish market share, work like hell to release service packs to fix problems" but still, the communication between computers that we enjoy now would never have come about without a standard OS. And don't even mention Linux. You know damn well that the average soccer mom (I know it sucks, but she's got a right to use a computer too) doesn't have the need or knowhow to customize linux to fit her needs.

[MrIncognito]

Considering that windows 3.1 was a copy of the Mac OS and sucked, I don't think Microsoft gets any credit for innovation. By the "communications we now enjoy," I assume you mean the internet. Well that wasn't started on Microsoft software either.

[Smackdaddy-OG]

The MacOS clone line is very trite and uninformed. The actual mouse driven GUI interface with icons was created by Xerox PARC and both of them copied the idea. If you want to talk greedy, turn to Apple whose hardware cost more than PCs and who had the nerve to charge you for drivers. If you want to talk closed architecture, turn to Apple again who didn't license out clones and kept prices inflated and support and market penetration low.

I think a line from BASF is appropriate. "At BASF, we don't make a lot of the things you use, we make a lot of the things you use better." That's what Microsoft does. They didn't invent the GUI or multitasking or XML, but they enhance things, make them organized, extensible, and understandable. MacOS didn't have preemptive multitasking until OS X and they "stole" that from BSD if you like to point fingers. Mind you Microsoft doesn't do a perfect job, but they do damn well compared to the competition. I run Linux as a router at home, I've programmed for Linux and I program in Windows and I know hardware. I've been on both sides enough to be objective and development in the Microsoft world is generally more cost effective and easier.

Also, let me remind you that innovation is not always about the one to generate the idea, it's about the entire business model. Microsoft made software mainstream and big business when IBM thought no one would ever want a PC. You have to give them credit for that.

Originally posted by MrIncognito:
Considering that windows 3.1 was a copy of the Mac OS and sucked, I don't think Microsoft gets any credit for innovation. By the "communications we now enjoy," I assume you mean the internet. Well that wasn't started on Microsoft software either.



[This message has been edited by Smackdaddy (edited April 03, 2001).]