[ Thanks to Jim Ray
for this link. ]
“On Wednesday Judge Marylin Patel ordered that Napster be shut
down by midnight PDT on Friday. Undoubtedly this judge must not be
following the legal proceedings from the DeCSS case that is in
progress on the other side of the country. In the DeCSS case Judge
Kaplan has stated that “courts have said for 300 years, at least
that courts of equity ought not to use the equitable power of
injunction to try to accomplish the impossible or to perform
something which is entirely futile, and therefore, in the exercise
of discretion given the broad prevalence of this particular utility
the court declines to issue the injunction because it would do no
practical good. I guess 20 million installed copies of Napster
software do not qualify as having “broad prevalence”. And if not
what does, Judge Patel?”
“Recently I purchased a copy of the latest Phish album, even
after having found the songs on Napster (before I could even find
the CD in stores). Now was what I did stealing? In a broad sense,
yes. But I would have bought the Phish CD anyway. Not because I
really wanted to part with that $16 but because I give a damn if
Phish continues to make good music.”
“Some would have us believe that by using Napster we are
depriving the artists of their right to make money off of their
material. In reality, the record companies are afraid we will
deprive them of the ability to make money off of the artists.
… The RIAA would have the public believe they care about the
musicians and that they are protecting the interest of the artists,
and not their own, in this lawsuit. However, as Courtney Love
recently elaborated in a Salon.com speech transcript… she
described the raping that record companies routinely inflict on
musicians. And they want to take the morally high ground?”