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[FYI] The Napster Revolution and the Law
- To: debate@fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] The Napster Revolution and the Law
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>
- Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 19:43:06 +0200
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http://www.heise.de/tp/english/kolumnen/gol/8806/1.html
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The Napster Revolution and the Law
Michael H. Goldhaber 28.09.2000
Intellectual property is the glue that holds together the suddenly
antiquated corporate order
When a French mob a few thousand strong stormed the Bastille in 1789,
it was the start of a revolution that swept away the ancien regime of
nobles and king, marking the death knell for feudalism. In 2000, with
Napster and its ilk, Internet users more than twenty million strong
are storming another bastion of what is now the old regime. All they
are doing is exchanging music that can be found in one another's
collections. But by that they threaten to undermine corporate control
by means of intellectual property laws.
Soon perhaps, the once mighty record companies will lie in ruins, no
longer able to restrict what may be listened to, no longer able to
determine musical tastes. And the revolution may soon spread much
further than that, for intellectual property is the glue that holds
together the now suddenly antiquated corporate order.
[...]
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