Music industry watch

The Great Cat & Mouse Game

Ever since MP3 reared its head on the Internet the RIAA and its member record companies have been playing an ever evolving game of cat and mouse with the people who share music over the Internet.

Mouse: At first, people starting putting MP3 files onto various FTP sites, free for all to download.
Cat: The RIAA promptly started shutting these sites down with cease and desist notices.

M: Then Napster appeared on the scene. Trading MP3s because easier than ever before.
C: The RIAA launched the Napster lawsuit, which was instrumental in killing off the company.

M: Shortly after Napster, Gnutella appeared. This time there is no central company to sue, only a few cash-poor developers.
C: To date the RIAA does not have a solution for the Gnutella problem.

M: Later, Kazaa, Grokster and Morpheus appear on the scene. These file sharing tools make Napster look like a crappy Ford Pinto.
C: The RIAA responds by sueing the companies behind these file sharing networks.

M: Kazaa is sold off to Sharman Networks, which relocates to Vanuatu, a small group of Islands in the South Pacific, where the RIAA has little reach.
C: The RIAA has no response to Sharman Networks' move. Yet.

This short and incomplete history of file trading on the net clearly shows that the file traders (the Mouse here) have swift and intelligent moves to counter each strike that the RIAA (the Cat) launches. The examples of Gnutella and Sharman Networks illustrate how the RIAA is fighting a war against an elusive enemy that will continue to outsmart the Cat, no matter how advanced the mousetraps are that the RIAA sets.

Must the record companies go down in flames before they wake up and smell the coffee? I guess so.

Posted by Mayhem at September 18, 2002 11:48 AM