Napster: Guerilla tactics will hamper RIAA

Will Knight ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 27 Jul 2000 12:33 BST

Gagging Napster may be the easiest task the RIAA has to face. Napster clones using similar protocol technologies promise to continue the MP3 free-for-all as the underground online music scene looks set to fight back.

Open source variations on Napster, like Gnutella, have been developed and distributed freely on the Internet with no commercial centralisation. Guerrilla tactics emerge as the only way to fight the music industry's attacks on music sharing applications.

One operation, OpenNap, could even allow Napster to function after the company has been forced to shut down its own servers.

Full story to follow.

David Coursey reckons at the end of the day, history will judge that Napster wasn't an advocate of "the Internet should be free" but a greedy bunch of corporate raiders trying to make their fortune off the property of others. Go to AnchorDesk UK for the news comment.

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