LIKE IT or not, Napster will die. Don't get me wrong; mp3s are an integral facet of the music industry's future. Everyone's beloved file-sharing platform, provider of free music to the masses, Napster will be the Moses of this 21st century liberation saga, leading society to the promised land that the program will never enter.
This promised land is where the milk and honey of music flows unrestricted over the Internet. Casual listeners and skeptical fans will download whatever they want. Consumers will purchase CDs for their high fidelity and for the extras which make them more valuable than the songs alone. Musicians will earn the crux of their profits from merchandising and touring. The recording industry Pharaoh must adapt to the new environment because it will no longer have exclusive control over content and distribution.
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Everyone likes to make money. When someone downloads a song from Napster and forgoes purchasing the album, both the recording industry and the music maker lose a sale. They lose money so the downloader can save his money to be spent elsewhere.
It's true that CD sales have risen steadily since the advent of mp3s, which is a good omen for the future of free music. However, the producers who have total control are reluctant to relinquish it, even if the numbers favor a release.
The real juggernaut here is not the Recording Industry Association of America, but the United States government. Copyright protection is a blanket promise guaranteeing that the producers of a product will have the sole right to decide who can and who cannot use it. Writers, painters, singers - all are sheltered by this promise. Without copyright, there is no way to stop people from stealing and profiting from the fruits of another's labor. The ultimate cost of no protection is no innovation; all but the fiercely dedicated would simply abandon their art and work for corporate America.
While it may notch an occasional victory, Napster won't win its legal war; it's a black market that will be exterminated. The promised land will only be reached if we, the listening audience, can convince the recording artists and the industry that free mp3s will actually strengthen music sales. Small, independent bands have been doing this for years, catering to a niche that is normally ignored. Even some larger acts - like Hole, Limp Bizkit, Chuck D - support the technology publicly. They all have started down the right path, chipping away at the establishment.
Napster has become too violent for its own good, too ubiquitous to affect a change. Using it is not a form of individual passive resistance, but a very active method of stealing. We are not Robin Hoods or Gandhis, but mini Al Capones dealing with hot property. Because of users' brazen defiance and outspoken independence, the recording industry is invoking its copyright protection to destroy the file-swapping program before it has a chance to make a real difference. Caught up in the short-term trove of free music, we have doomed the possibility of a blessed future delivered by Napster.
This is not to say that the program hasn't been good; it has made the mp3 issue a national one and forced people to choose sides. It has led us to where we are now - the brink of a revolutionary change. Like Moses, Napster isn't going to guide us into the promised land.
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This next round of combat addresses the tactical alternative of incrementalism. A successful October launch of Offspring's album will do more to the recording industry than the sustained salvo of copyright infringement supported by Napster users. Convince music producers that strategies like this will lead to higher sales and the term "illegal mp3" will no longer be necessary.
Napster has done all it can for the free music cause. You can lament or even protest its demise, but doing so will not accomplish anything. Like it or not, Napster will die; just don't blow Plan B.
(Bryan Killian is a third-year College student. He is vice president of the Student Computing Group.)
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