“What happens when an immovable object meets an irresistible
force? Well, eventually equilibrium. But that takes awhile and at
the moment of contact, it’s all sound and fury.”
“And that’s exactly what you have been hearing from the music
industry the last couple of months — especially fury. The powerful
recording industry (the immovable object) ran head on into the
emerging online digital music revolution (an irresistible force)
and all hell broke loose. The recording industry, through its
trade organization the Recording Industry Association of American
(RIAA) sued two of the key players in the online music business,
Napster and MP3.com. At this writing the legal score stands:
Recording Industry 2, Freeloaders 0.“
“What do those on the inside of this fight have to say for
themselves? Here we try to give you the kind of flavor and tone
that, normally only the reporter working on a story gets. Instead
of quoting or paraphrasing our sources for this piece we provide
their comments directly as audio. Here we step back and let you
draw your own conclusions.”