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About this siteFor six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul Saturday, August 07, 2004Apple and the legacy of NapsterCNET: "At just less than $100 million, the digital music market still constitutes a relative drop in the bucket when compared with the nearly $12 billion CD business. But downloaders are now projected to make up 20 percent of the music-buying universe within the next five years, according to JupiterResearch. That shows how far the needle has moved. During the height of the Napster controversy, the sides remained too far apart to figure out how to make it work: You either believed that bits and bytes should be free or dismissed Napster as the epitome of corrosive cyberanarchism. What a stale conversation--and one that missed the bigger point: Napster had the technology, Hollywood had the music, and something big was on the horizon. If only the opposing sides could ever see the forest for the trees. That was not to be. The music industry was too afraid of losing control, and Napster couldn't run away from the fact that it was a clearinghouse for stolen intellectual property. The future was put on hold until Apple Computer helped break the stalemate with the introduction of the iTunes Music Store. Just as only Nixon could go to China, Steve Jobs had the credibility with both the Silicon Valley and Hollywood communities to change the debate terms. Apple deserves the kudos it's gotten--but will squander a lot of that good will if it goes ahead with an ill-considered jihad against RealNetworks."It's nice to see when people get it for a change. [ Posted at 8:43 AM | Permalink ]
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