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Thursday, November 16, 2000
While we're all trying to figure out how we're going to be buying (or stealing) our music during the future, the companies providing us with our new music listening opportunities are trying to figure out how they are going to present these opportunities to us.
Napster is trying to figure out how it can convert to a pay-for-play service without alienating the millions of users who have used it for free in the past. Frequent users tell me that Napster has a long way to go in terms of ensuring satisfying downloads of music files. Many of them put up with the problems simply because they can get their music for free.
Undoubtedly millions of users will be unwilling to pay for Napster under any circumstance. They will go away to find some other way to get their music for free -- legal or not. But what will the new fee-based Napster service look like for the millions who stay?
According to Napster's chief executive officer, Hank Barry, they will use a membership model, as opposed to a subscription model. So you'll be part of a community when you pay your monthly fee. He hasn't yet outlined what will make us want to be part of his community other than the fact that he'll still be able to operate and we'll be able to pay a monthly fee to get our music from the Net. It would stand to reason that he will satisfy that legion of Elvis Presley fans -- those cuttingedge users of the music download community. (Elvis recorded on RCA records, which was later purchased by Bertelsmann, the company that is now backing Napster's adventures into real business models.)
Napster will likely have technology that will be able to differentiate between legally copied songs and bootlegged files. Rumor has it that Shawn Fanning, the Napster founder who created the original concept while not being a student at Northeastern University, is already working on the software to make this happen.
I guess he'll have to prove that Napster's legal council, David Boies, was wrong when he suggested that this technology would be impossible to create. That's the same David Boies who, when arguing on behalf of the federal government against Microsoft, refuted Microsoft's claim that Internet Explorer could not be separated from Windows.
Well, it looks like our music will be inextricably connected with Windows from now on, as companies are finally starting to put together models that will legally allow us to listen to music on and with the Internet. Now, it's just a question of the bells, whistles, and payment mechanisms.
Q: I've just purchased software to run my business checking account. One of its features creates and fills in tax forms. Does the government accept these forms? Do I risk penalties?
A: Many businesses and individuals now depend on personal financial software, such as Quicken, QuickBooks and Microsoft Money to track their accounts and compute their taxes. These companies have included printable forms that emulate government issued forms. For instance, QuickBooks prepares acceptable Forms 941, 940 and W-2, all of which you may submit to the IRS. By having QuickBooks process these forms, you'll save lots of time and ensure that your forms are complete (if you remember to sign and date them).
It is my experience that you always risk penalties -- whether submitting a form created by your financial software or manually -- because you can always make mistakes. However, you'll be less likely to make mistakes if you use one of these applications than if you calculate by hand. If you plan to calculate your taxes with these programs, you'd be well advised to subscribe to the appropriate tax update service. That way you'll be using the current federal and state tax tables in your calculations. To find out whether you have the latest service, click on the [Help] menu of the application. Then select the choice that indicates it will give you information on tax tables. (In QuickBooks, it would be [About Tax Table...].
David Radin is host of the nationally syndicated radio show "Internet Insider," a local version of which is aired on KDKA AM 1020 at noon Saturdays. You can ask him a computer or Internet question by following the instructions at www.post-gazette.com/interact, where you also can find an archive of his previous Q&A columns.
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