The same old song.(Leaders)(The record industry is reluctant to do a deal with Napster because its chief concern is protecting its business model, not preventing piracy)(Brief Article)

Economist (US), The, February, 2001

STRIP away the legal arguments, and you might conclude that the Napster case, which concerns the swapping of free music files by millions of Internet users, goes something like this. On one side are the record companies, defending artists' rights, as they should; on the other is Napster, an outlaw that has made a mockery of those rights by giving away software that makes music piracy easy. Napster must be stopped, or the record companies' revenues will shrink, artists will see their rightful incomes cut, and new talent will be stifled.

Not so fast. This is certainly how the record industry, in the form of the Recording Industry Association of America, is painting it. But the Napster case is not just, or even mainly, about piracy. It is about business models....

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