Napster on the comeback!

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AND Napster just keeps on clinging to life.

The web service that won't say die is heading for a comeback at the end of the year.
And if that's not joy enough, whizzkid founder Shawn Fanning is back on board, telling new owner Roxio - which bought the site's assets for £3.15million in November - how to make a success of the venture.

The file-sharing network which kick-started the MP3 digital music phenomenon will return as a fee-based site.

Roxio's Elliot Carpenter said the new service will be "easy and fun and have the broadest range of artists - and the right price".

Sounds almost too good to be true.

Whether those in charge of music rights will be prepared to work with a company carrying so much baggage is another thing entirely.

Meanwhile, a Dutch company called PGR is causing a few headaches for the record companies. Claiming it "will become to file sharing what the Swiss are to banking," PGR is to exploit a loophole in Dutch law that says ISPs and peer-to-peer file-sharing services cannot be held responsible for users' copyright infringements.

Therefore any illegitimate file-sharing business set up in Holland is exempt from prosecution. Theoretically.

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Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/amysi/

Now how many people will in fact use this "too good to be true" web service when there are so many file sharing networks out there charging NOTHING, including this new filesharing network PGR?

Cheers

That's a nice thought, and I see people using it, but I think most people are too spoiled these days with Kazaa and those types of P2P software to really want to pay for a service they already get free... totally agree with you r3b00+. But there are the people who do everything BY THE BOOK, and might use it. But I see that as being maybe around 1% of all users of computers.

Then again maybe this is an event that is telling us there will be some serious crack downs so P2P file sharing as we know it won't exsist anymore? Wait and see, what else do we have to loose?

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Then again maybe this is an event that is telling us there will be some serious crack downs so P2P file sharing as we know it won't exsist anymore?

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But thats what this new company are claiming they can get away with:

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Dutch company called PGR is causing a few headaches for the record companies. Claiming it "will become to file sharing what the Swiss are to banking," PGR is to exploit a loophole in Dutch law that says ISPs and peer-to-peer file-sharing services cannot be held responsible for users' copyright infringements.

Therefore any illegitimate file-sharing business set up in Holland is exempt from prosecution.

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It'll be interesting to see how it all pans out!

People will always pay for what is free. Windows is still around, isn't it?

I think some people just because of curiosity they will pay or download a crack to use it, as the KaZaA is starting breaking my nerves. Everywhere problems. About a year ago, i visited a site(click here) about programming and have found a cool prog that almost the same as KaZaA using KaZaA P2P system, but with out some extra features and of course the ADS!!! But unfortunately after the KaZaA it has some problem this too. Just some info was that.

If in this new service there was a wide range of artists and songs to choose from and I was allowed to create a CD and such as I pleased, then I for one would be willing to pay money to be a member of this service. Music is my second love, and there isn't a week that goes by where I don't buy one or more CD's. I know that there are some people who would NEVER pay for something that can get free elsewhere, and I believe that P2P applications such as Kazaa, etc, will always be around no matter how hard the RIAA or anyone else comes down on them. But there are a number of users, I assume not a trivial amount either, that would be willing to pay such as myself. So I believe that the service, if done right, can succeed.

I will never pay for napster service but that's just me. Iam too spoiled by p2p. Good luck to them tho I hope it works out.

Personally I don't think I will ever pay for downloaded music. If I see a CD that I think is worth it, I buy it. If I would not spend money on it I download it.
Here is a scenario though :rolleyes: . I am sure most of us have lost tons of MP3s to data loss (HDD crash :mad: etc.) Imagine if this happened and you had actually paid for those MP3s. :eek: Even CDRs seem to get damaged too easially.
I don't think it is worth the risk yet. May be if they develop some reliable CHEAP backup media then yes.

-GPF

GPF, that's why we have data backups and such, on multiple kinds of media. I regularly backup my data at home via CD's, multiple data locations, etc. and at work via the methods we have in place there.

Let me ask you this, how often do you use P2P applications such as Kazaa? I'd bet if you use it much at all to download music, then you are getting, a good part of the time, MP3's that aren't of the highest quality. This is another reason why I'd pay for a Napster-like service. Personally, I'd rather pay for a CD or an .MP3 where I know that every song is of the highest quality, no skips, no fuzzy crap, the full song, etc.

As I stated in my previous post, I believe that there will always be P2P applications around - they can't be stopped. But I also believe that there are a good number of people out there that would pay for a Napster-like service.

I see what you mean about the quality. I get most of my MP3s via a circle of friends. Each of us buy a cd a month and we the MP3s. However if I had to pay for a service I would much rather it be via ftp or something p2p has too many potential bottlenecks. I thought p2p was brought about to bypass laws against servers making copyright material available for download. If it isn't illegal then why not use centralised servers. In my mind that solves alot of problems.
May be I am misunderstanding how the sysem will work, if so please enlighten me :p

-GPF

Well, one of downfalls of Napster was the fact that it had centralized servers - almost as if Napster iteself was promoting the trading of this copyrighted material - courts didn't like that too well.. I wouldn't say that P2P applications were created to bypass the laws, because it doesn't matter how you look at it, it's still the illegal trading of copyright material whether you do it via centralized servers or via P2P.

As far as the quality goes, I've heard that it's horrible these days.. I've heard it takes a while to find worthwhile quality material on Kazaa, if it's found at all... There was a thread about Overpeer polluting the P2P networks with these .MP3's, I'll try to find the link for it - I can't seem to get a search to work on AO right now..

EDIT: I found it, here's the link:
http://www.antionline.com/showthread...&postid=601628

You make a good point about paying for FTP service.. I've heard several people say that they would rather use FTP than P2P applications anyday - they trusted FTP alot more. So I guess that might be something to consider for a potential Napster-like service - probably wouldn't happen though...

I followed that thread, and I am aware of the degrading quality of mp3s on p2p. In all honesty I prefer to use p2p for software and not music. You see I am stuck in a thrid world country where you need an obscene income to get a credit card and debit cards don't exist. Also no one delivers here, so if I want software that I can't buy in local shops I need to download it illegally. :( Belive me If I could I would pay for it. Believe it or not I have to drive 350KM and cross a border just to get to a half decent CD shop. If I want to do some decent software / CD shopping I need to drive 450KM (once again into a different country), and stay in a hotel overnight otherwise I don't have time to shop because the borders close at 10PM.

Oh woe is me...

Anyway If it wasn't for the internet I would go mad!

Thank you for listening to my almost relevent rant :)

-GPF