Cultural Wars
Prince Continues to be the Revolutionary
Prince Loves Napster and Blasts Time Warner
Judge Marilyn Patel Launches a Vitriolic Attack Against Napster
She Issues a Reactionary and Very Frightening Ruling
August 15, 2000
Legendary revolutionary and rock star Prince has added his considerable support to music-sharing technologies, calling services like Napster "exciting," and continuing his criticism of the record industry in general, and Time Warner in particular, for exploiting artists.
Prince's very innovative web site NPG On-Line Ltd. has major section, FREEDOM NEWZ, devoted to music sharing, digital technology, and especially, anti-industry rhetoric.
Prince's lengthy, well written and well reasoned article adds remarkable insight into the legal, moral and ethical battle between Napster and the world's largest record companies. It is available on his web site and was released to the press on August 6, 2000.
Prince's continuing fight with Time Warner is legendary. It was a contract and creative control dispute with Time Warner that caused "The Artist" to abandon the name Prince for years, only reclaiming it this summer, after his contract with Time Warner had finally expired.
During the dispute, "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" changed his written name to a cryptic unpronounceable symbol and took to appearing in public with the word "slave" painted on his face.
"From the point of view of the music lover, what's going on can only be viewed as an exciting new development in the history of music," said Prince, "And fortunately for (the music lover), there does not seem to be anything the old record companies can do about preventing this evolution from happening."
But Prince saved his most pointed criticism at Richard Parsons, the president of Time Warner Inc. and his former label Warner Brothers.
Prince said that Time Warner only "deals with the relationship between music and the public from a purely commercial point of view. Nowhere is there any indication that what might happen with young people exchanging music is that they might develop a real appreciation of music in general and ... be perfectly honest citizens who realize that artists should be compensated for their work."
Prince said that Napster is an illustration of "the growing frustration over how much the record companies control what music people get to hear."
If Prince is the Revolutionary, Judge Patel is Determined to Save America from the Revolution
On August 11, 2000 Judge Marilyn Hall Patel issued a scathingly brutal written opinion formalizing her order from the bench on July 26, 2000 which effectively ordered the closure of Napster. While the written ruling was expected and was moot since the Court of Appeals had already issued a temporary injunction staying her order, the harsh and disdainful language caught everyone completely off guard.
Patel simply trashed the centerpiece of Napster's argument, she refused to dignify it with extended discussion. Instead, she dispensed with it in a footnote. Napster had claimed that noncommercial copying and not for profit sharing of sound recordings had been legalized by the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992.
However, Patel ruled that the 1992 Act does not apply to copying performed by computer hard drives. HUH?? Copying to a tape recorder is legal but the same copy to a computer hard drive IS NOT legal. the WIZARD just doesn't understand. We can copy to tape. Could we copy to a "tape drive?"
The Judge is clearly telegraphing her final ruling. Napster doesn't stand a ghost of a chance in her courtroom. Patel ruled that a key piece of Napster's evidence, a survey concluding that Napster was spurring sales of the plaintiffs' CDs, not hampering them, was found to be "gravely flawed" and inadmissible.
In a moment of nearly total ignorance, Patel found that the "plaintiffs have invested in the digital downloading market and their business plans are threatened by a service that offers the same product for free."
The only investment the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has made is in high priced lawyers and multiple lawsuits designed to stop all new technology development.
Prince has learned the hard way that the billion dollar record companies are harsh enemies to confront. His battle with Time Warner even cost him his name. But he has never surrendered his dignity or his creativity. Alas, Napster doesn't have the same power as Prince. As a corporate entity they will be broken. But the music fan and the technology do have the power and the RIAA is forcing this battle underground, into gorilla warfare. This will become the RIAA's Viet Nam.
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