What do you think about Napster?

[tw]

Originally posted by sycamore
Speaking of piracy, did Microsoft actually steal the technology for Windows from Apple...or was that just some sort of battle cry when Apple was floundering? I know that Apple settled that suit about 3 or 4 years ago, but I never quite understood what the background of it was... [/b]

Apple stole the technology from Xerox starting with Jobs famous quote, "How come you're not selling this stuff. You could own the world." When Apple turned anti-innovation, they went looking for others to blame; to sue both HP and Microsoft for stealing the "look and feel" of Xerox's technology. Go figure.

We use the word 'steal' in a liberated sense. Legally there was no theft. Obviously, Xerox stifled technology for almost a decade, then Apple refused to license it to others - ie. clones. One of my college friends has a long history also including as an Apples corporate officer just trying to get Apple, then, to innovate. Ironically the pro-innovator was MBA educated.


In semicondutors, a new process was recently developed to inlay copper. Does the process remain only the property of IBM. Yes- if IBM remains as anti-American as it was throughout the 1980s. However IBM licenses the technology because a productive society does share tech breakthroughs to the advantage of all AND to the profit of its creators.

Funny thing about music. For all practical purposes, it is public domain within years. You must create it, get it out, and make your money early. Unfortunately this becomes the advantage of the big 5. After that, the only money is in the reproduction manufacturing. Any laws that make it easier for the little guy to promote and market his product faster is to the disadvantage of the big "only we know what is right" corporate mentalities because it is to the advantage of the economy.

US history if full of American jobs lost because MBA micromanagers could not understand the innovation. Classic of this list include these American created technologies: Sony Trinitron, Honda CVCC engine, transistor radio, McPherson Strut suspension, VCR. Other technologies that were stifled in America to the detriment of Americans: radial tire for almost 20 years, rack and pinion steering, electric arc furnace, statistical process control, sub-1000th inch and computer controlled machine tool technology.

The question is simply how does the music creator still earn his profits while society prospers from his accomplishments? IOW how do we make the big 5 corporations irrelevant or less necessary? Ironically the best source for that answer should come from the big 5 companies.