Stardate 20010713.1125 (On Screen): Well, if nothing else was going to kill Napster as we knew it off, this will do it. Judge Patel has ordered Napster to stay offline until it can guarantee that no unauthorized copyrighted material will ever appear on its system. (This really shouldn't surprise anyone.) The article asks rhetorically if this is even possible.
It's possible but not practical. The only way it could be done is by changing from a disapproval system to an approval system. Instead of permitting songs through unless they're recognized and blocked, the system would deny all songs unless they're explicitly recognized and permitted. If it was a file exchange system, that would mean that a trusted (hah!) Napster staffer would have to listen to the song and confirm that it wasn't anything public and then enable it, which is not economically viable.
Only it actually is, and that's what we're about to see. The next incarnation of Napster (if it survives) will not be as a music exchange system. It's going to be a simple music distribution system, where music moves from Napster to its users but not from users to each other. All the music Napster vends will be licensed, and it will cost users a small amount of money for each and every song they get. Napster will become an electronic publishing business for music, rather than a file exchange system. What I'm expecting is something akin to an Internet radio, where a user sets up a special client program which receives and plays the music without storing it. The user selects the songs to hear. The billing might be a one-time fee per song for unlimited plays, but I'm expecting a per-minute usage fee instead. (discuss)
