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Thursday, August 10, 2000
Based on recent calls to my radio shows -- some bordering on violent --Internet users are incensed about Napster. Take Madison in Silicon Valley. She's an artist. Not a recording artist -- she uses paintbrushes.
Yet she is concerned that such technologies as Napster will sap her income. How? By removing her ability to control how her intellectual property is distributed. She goes as far as say that the venture capitalists in Silicon Valley are purposely putting her livelihood at risk so they can build their power bases.
Similarly, hordes of recording artists have banded together under the auspices of "Artists Against Piracy." They are specifically worried about Napster, because they believe their incomes are already being cut into by downloads from Napster. Noah Stone, director of Artists Against Piracy, speaking on behalf of such diverse artists in his group as Christina Aguilera, Garth Brooks, Herbie Hancock, and Hootie & The Blowfish, says Napster circumvents the artists, making them cede control of their works to people who don't have their best interests in mind.
The opposing view suggests that the record industry brought it on themselves by charging prices that are simply too high. One caller told me that he builds his own CDs with Napster downloaded songs -- just the one or two songs from each artist that he really likes. He feels justified because he thinks he shouldn't have to pay for the songs he doesn't like what he would be paying for if he bought a retail CD.
Stone disagrees. He says the large royalties that go to an artist for a blockbuster hit (and also to the recording company for that same hit) underwrite the costs and time spent creating the songs that don't become hits. So, he says, the packaging of CDs is justified.
Even so, with the possibility of Napster being shut down shortly, millions of music lovers are using the service to download music for free. I wonder how many of these people would buy a TV from a shady character out of the back of a truck. Is it the same thing? Send me your view using the web form at www.insiderradio.com/ internetinsider/stepup.html.
Have a question for David Radin? Contact him at his Web site
Q: I heard you say on your program "never delete applications, uninstall them." First, what's an application? (I'm new.) Then how do you uninstall them?
A: An application is simply one of the many programs that you run on your computer. Your word processor, spreadsheet and music players are all applications. Many applications have their own uninstall utilities. To find the utility, go to your [Start] menu, then look within [Programs] for the specific folder related to the application. If that application has an Uninstall utility, you'll probably find it there. If not, you might try to insert the original CD from the application to run the setup utility. Many setup utilities allow you to install, change configurations, or uninstall the application. Finally, if you can't find a specific uninstall, use the "Add/Remove Programs" option in Windows. You'll find it from the [Start] menu by clicking on [Settings], then [Control Panel]. Double-click on [Add/Remove Programs] to start it. Then highlight the application you want to remove in the list, and click on the [Add/Remove...] button.
Quick Tip
In Microsoft Word, if you want to remove the extraneous formatting (bold, italic, underlined, etc.) from a word, sentence or section of text, highlight that text; then hold down the CTRL key and press the Space Bar. This will remove all formatting at one time.
David Radin is host of the nationally syndicated radio show "Internet Insider," a local version of which is aired on KDKA AM 1020 on Saturdays at noon.
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