July 1

Watch Out Napster!
There's a New Kid on the Block
Sun Review July 1, 2000

If you like music and you've got a computer, you've probably heard of Napster (www.napster.com), a program that lets you locate and download your favourite music in MP3 format. While Napster is embroiled in a high-stakes legal battle with the recording industry, other companies continue to churn out new ways to share music and other media files.

Gnutella (gnutella.wego.com) is a free program created by the same people who devised Winamp. Gnutella lets you find MP3s and other popular types of multimedia files on the systems of other Gnutella users. Type in what you want to find and it searches through the hard disks of other Gnutella users - which means literally hundreds of gigabytes of files.

Unlike the popular "search and download" tool Napster, Gnutella doesn't have to hook up to a central server in order to communicate with other program users, so it helps you retain some degree of anonymity. Both the client and the server are contained in the same 101.1Kb program. You are free to connect to any of the users running Gnutella, and share as much or as little information with them as you want.

If you're worried about viruses, remember that a program such as Gnutella exposes you to the same risks as downloading files from the Internet through any other means such as FTP, the Web, IRC or Usenet. Use common sense and scan all your downloaded files with an updated virus checker.

Gnutella works with Windows 95/98/2000, and a Linux and Java version for Mac are also available. Check the Gnutella website for a tutorial, FAQ, and other support information.

File sharing technologies such as Napster and Gnutella may be impossible to eradicate and are eating into CD sales, the main revenue generator for the recording industry. Why would you pay for a CD in a store when you can use Napster to download the same music for free, then play it on your PC or even turn it into a CD yourself?

Napster is battling copyright-infringement lawsuits by record labels and such groups as Metallica. They've just hired lawyer David Boies, lead attorney for the Justice Department in the Microsoft case, to defend their interests. But the recording industry - with the help of some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs - believe they can use technology in new ways to stem the tide of piracy.

Internet giant America Online Inc. said on Tuesday it plans to use InterTrust Technologies Corp.'s software to allow music and video to be securely downloaded from the Internet. InterTrust (www.intertrust.com) specializes in "digital rights management" (DRM) software that applies customized security to media files.

On June 21, MP3.com announced a new subscription system for users to access music. The system allows artists and music labels to make subscription lists of available music to MP3.com users. Artists and labels control the price of subscriptions, allowing them to raise or lower prices depending on demand.

What does the future hold for Napster and its clones? Should music be free or should there be a fee? Despite Napster's legal troubles, the company maintains it can ultimately coexist with the labels' pay-for-play plans. Let us know what you think.