[WEB4LIB] Re: Napster - Audio Books

[Roy Tennant]

I find the Napster phenomenon fascinating, but, I'm afraid, for very 
different reasons than most of the press corps. For one, I find it 
gratifying to discover what I've suspected all along is actually true 
-- that is, there *is* room for another protocol if one has a 
compelling service. That is, people *are* willing to download a 
special client that only speaks "napsterese" (or whatever), and use 
it for a specific task.

This proves my point for developing a dedicated digital library 
client. Why not? Instead of being set up to search for sound files 
alone, this one will sign on to special directory servers (national 
libraries, are you listening?) to be able to transparently search 
digital libraries for content (books, journal articles, movies, sound 
files, you name it) using a much, much richer set of metadata than 
whatever dreck Joe Schmoe decides to note about the sound file he 
just ripped off.

Oh, and another thing. Instead of logging on and getting lord knows 
what because the individuals who make up the napster "network" may or 
may not be logged on at the moment (some still using 14.4 modems!!), 
you could actually count on stuff still being there the next morning. 
[a digression...has anyone yet determined what the napster witching 
hour is? that is, does one see predictable dips and surges in 
available content as the planet turns?]

Daniel Chudnov's "docster" document is a good start on the 
professional discussion that I'd like to see, not about the copyright 
issue (*of course* libraries can't violate copyright), but about the 
potential of this type of technology. That is, how can we use it for 
the best benefit of our collective clientele? That's clearly the 
question we should be asking.

You know, I think I've just stumbled on the topic for my next Digital 
Libraries column for Library Journal. If you have thoughts on this, 
drop me or the list a line. I'd like to hear from you. Thanks,
Roy

>Audrey, et al.
>       Your success will vary depending on how many users are currently
>connected; as well as to which of the dozens of Napster servers you happen
>to connect to at any one moment. I'm connected right now, and can't find any
>of those authors, either. Nor do I find the Harry Potter tapes that someone
>else had noted last week, although I did see them a few days ago. You may
>have already observed that if you do a search, then disconnect, then
>reconnect and do the same search, your results will often vary.
>      A program called Napigator allows you to select napster servers:
>http://www.napigator.com/. Napigator claims their server-targeting software
>is fine with Napster, but this past weekend I used it and had to
>re-subscribe to Napster...don't know if there was a correlation, but there
>you go.
>     BTW, another program called wrapster http://notoctavian.tripod.com/
>allows non-MP3 files to be shared via the napster protocol by mimicing the
>MP3 file validation routines.
>OpenNap http://opennap.sourceforge.net/ also has a list of other file
>sharing protocols at the bottom of their page.
>It's going to take a lot of fingers to plug the holes in this dike. With
>audio files, where the output device is a speaker/headphone connection, I'm
>not sure any technology will be able to preserve copyright. It remains to be
>seen whether text readers are being developed with sufficient encryption to
>stop unlicensed sharing (or, more importantly to our interests, allow
>licensed sharing!).
>Jerry Kuntz
>Ramapo Catskill Library System
>jkuntz at rcls.org
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Audrey Kelly <AKelly at lva.lib.va.us>
>To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
>Sent: Monday, July 03, 2000 11:58 AM
>Subject: [WEB4LIB] Napster - Audio Books
>
>
>>  Hi all,
>>  How is it that you are finding audio books on Napster?  This is an actual
>>  reference question - I was unable to find any of the authors suggested by
>>  Jerry Kuntz. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?
>>
>>  Audrey
>  >
>>