The Internet Predicament

摘要

The napster adventure captures the inter- net's confusing present and uncertain future. By many accounts, Napster is the fastest-growing new Internet application ever. There are 62 million registered users for something that started in April 1999- They can download and copy virtually any music ever recorded in digital format. But now a federal court threatens to close Napster's free distribution as a type of techno-theft that violates copyright laws. Whether Napster can survive by charging for music and paying royalties is an open question. Indeed, the same sort of question applies to the entire Internet.