Napster Question (Was Audio Books Being Shared)

[Donald A. Barclay]

One question I haven't heard raised about Napster, Gnutella, et al. is that 
of the authenticity of the files you download. For example, what's to keep 
some person, group, or company from flooding the Napwaves with files that 
appear to be tracks from Ms Spears yet-to-be-released album but turn out to 
be advertisements, political rants, or the songs of some Spears-wannabe in 
search of an audience?

Maybe with music, such trickery wouldn't be a problem. After a few seconds 
of listening, you would figure out the file you've downloaded is not really 
the song you wanted and would simply turn it off. However, imagine if 
journal articles come to be shared the way music is now shared on Napster. 
And imagine  somebody tampers with a journal article they are sharing by, 
perhaps, changing a few numbers here and there or  rewriting the 
conclusion, . It would be difficult to detect subtle tampering, and the 
consequences could be quite serious in such fields as medicine, 
engineering, chemistry, and so on.

I'm not trying to come off as pro- or anti-Napster, but I do see the 
question of authenticity as a serious challenge to the notion that Napster 
et al. is going to transform publishing into an entirely communal activity. 
Perhaps one role of librarians will be to ensure the authenticity of 
information?

Donald A. Barclay
Houston Academy of Medicine-
Texas Medical Center Library                                      always 
the beautiful answer
dbarclay at library.tmc.edu                                               who 
asks a more beautiful question
713-799-7120 
                                                                       	  
--e. e. cummings