GG and Napster and MP3

[Mary Jo Watts <mwatts@rci.rutgers.edu>]

To come back to an older thread raised by Anne Marble in July b/c I'm
really curious...

Do any of you take advantage of Napster's "offerings" of GG recordings?
If so, why? Is Napster ethical?

I don't use Napster for Gould but I do download pop songs which I almost
inevitably go out and buy.  Mostly I like having the files on my laptop so
that they go w/me and I don't have to worry about lugging around CDs.  I
would even be willing to by an individual "license" to have the right to
download and use MP3 files b/c they're so handy.

What would Gould have thought of Napster? I can imagine what the estate
thinks.

Sony?? That's more problematic: ("While its Sony Music division is
challenging the use of Napster technology, Sony's electronics
manufacturing arm markets a portable listening device that plays MP3
files, "regardless of whether the files were made with the authorization
of the copyright holders," Napster says."
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/news/articles2000/000705-2.shtml)

Sony's MP3 player uses memory sticks so the MP3 files move seemlessly from
the Sony Vaio computer to the MP3 player.  They're creating the hardware
to disseminate the very files they're saying are illegal.  But it's not ok
for Napster to create the software?

The development of new technologies was always an interest of GG's--
wouldn't having a digital copy of those two "dream performances" you
want to fuse together make that "kit" concept of music more plausible for
the masses (who have, of course, the means to compute)?  Shouldn't music
be as portable as possible?

Opinions?

-Mary Jo Watts

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mary Jo Watts, mwatts@rci.rutgers.edu | http://teachx.rutgers.edu/~mwatts
Program in  Comparative Literature | Teaching Excellence Center
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey