[ Thanks to Kevin
Reichard for this link. ]
“Why are we in the Open Source community so passionate about
defending Napster against the Recording Industry Association of
America? Let’s see: it’s not because Napster is an Open Source
company. Quite the opposite: the owners of Napster have discouraged
Open Source versions of the Napster software and have sent
threatening notes to those who would try and create Open Source
alternatives to Napster like OpenNAP.”
“Let’s face it: Napster is nothing more than a commercialized
attempt to leach off the music industry, to provide the fruits of
someone else’s labor while skimming a little off the top. Napster
is a well-financed commercial enterprise that exists for no other
reason but to make money off of peer-to-peer file sharing. …
Napster attempts to supercede the rights of artists by
providing the means to illegally trade copyrighted
materials.”
“In my mind, this goes directly against the spirit of Open
Source, which is why the whole-hearted support of Napster in the
Open Source community boggles my mind. One purpose behind Open
Source is to give power to users through the inclusion of source
code; another purpose is to encourage people to shift from
proprietary code to Open Source code. But the notion of enriching
oneself at the expense of those creating Open Source code–while
contributing nothing to Open Source in the process–is anathema to
those truly serious about Open Source. And certainly no one tries
to hide behind Open Source while simultaneously advocating massive
software piracy.”