[WEB4LIB] Re: Napster Question (Was Audio Books Being Shared)

[Julia Schult]

Debra Shapiro wrote:

> article about using the Napster model for ILL:
>
> docster: instant document delivery
> Daniel Chudnov
> http://www.haplr-index.com/docster.htm

Thanks to Debra Shapiro for pointing out the Daniel Chudnov article.
Here are two paragraphs, which I am reproducing for the purposes of
review and commentary:

> The questions any librarian would ask at this point are obvious: "what about copyright?" and "doesn't
> it need to be organized?" The simple answer for question one is that while the napster folks state that
> they seek "to comply with applicable laws and regulations governing copyright," napster is widely
> used for making copies of songs in blatant violation of copyright. I know... I've done it. This doesn't
> seem to stop thousands of folks from using it; evidently folks aren't losing sleep over it. Napster is
> being sued, but the service hasn't been slowed at all yet. To put it simply, we all know that it's wrong,
> but somehow this is still-too-new for many people to dismiss as morally corrupt so therefore plenty of
> users remain.
>
...

> As for organization, it doesn't seem to matter. Nobody's organized a bit of it. Catalogers should turn
> red when seeing how poor (read: absent) the indexing is. 100% brute force, not even stop word
> removal and no clear record editing. Applying a few simple techniques to this problem would make
> searching for songs more reliable but not really any easier, because people are already mostly finding
> what they want to find and that's adequate for most. If you don't believe this, ask your nearest
> university network administrator.
>

These paragraphs get at the crux of the matter.  I would add that among
my friends and acquaintances, mostly young folk, they literally don't
even think about copyright when they copy a video, music tape, or CD.
When it is time to copy an article, they only think about the printing
and/or photocopying expense.  Basically, because fair use exists and
therefore today's students see free use of materials in schools and
classrooms, and because reproduction is easier than purchase, I firmly
believe that anyone under thirty, and plenty of folks over thirty, have
no knowledge of, belief in, or respect for copyright law.  Period.

I recently read an article about Napster, I believe it was in Rolling
Stone, which basically said that most college students no longer buy CDs,
they just download music.  And they don't think about copyright.  The few
that think about copyright live with the slight twinge of guilt because
A) they don't want to pay when they don't have to (who would) and B)
everyone they know is doin' it.  In this case, everyone they know
probably IS doin' it.

Prohibition was a huge failure because of widespread disregard for the
law.  Even in the face of police raids, speakeasies were everywhere.  So
what do we do now that disregard for copyright law is nearing the same
levels?  With all this talk of reinventing the publishing industry, and
with examples like the Grateful Dead and Amazon.com as examples, where
are we headed?  And should I tell my sister-in-law to stop sending me
Barney/Mother Goose videos she has taped off the air for my daughter?

---Julia E. Schult
Access/Electronic Services Librarian
Elmira College
Jschult at elmira.edu



Debra Shapiro wrote:

> article about using the Napster model for ILL:
>
> docster: instant document delivery
> Daniel Chudnov
> http://www.haplr-index.com/docster.htm


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