All The Rave

[Beejus]

I posted about this book at another forum, back when I had first made discovery of it's production. Now I own the hard copy book.

It is, so far, a good read, but only for the geek at heart and music swapper fans that just need to know more about where their beloved cat with headphones went and how it came to be the world's most powerful tool against capitalism. Can't forget to mention easier to get the shit they wanted. I bought it for 25$ at Borders, mine as well read it and see what "all the rave" is.


And as E said elsewhere, it has a lot to do with the buisness aspects, but it also has a lot to do with the personal lives of the creators/operates and the technology behind it, so you get every flavor that Napster has to offer.

[eclectica]

Here's a Slashdot review (http://books.slashdot.org/books/03/07/11/1858235.shtml?tid=141&tid=187&tid=188) of the book.

I'm glad Napster never became a business product. Its death at the hands of the music industry was an honorable way for it to go.

[Beejus]

Techies of all stripes will be amused as Menn attempts to make computer programming jargon edible to the mainstream reader. Just imagine explaining terms like IRC and warez to your grandma, and you'll have a good idea of the language in these beginning chapters.


It's very true, I had a great laugh when he was explaining 1337. It was a riot, that and how mp3s work.

If you don't feel like reading the book, just wait a lil while because Shawn Fanning sold the rights to his life story to MTV, and I'm sure they're gonna make a movie...

[eclectica]

Unfortunately MTV is sympathetic to the RIAA, so I imagine that the spin they'll put on it is how he was an aloof rebel who had good ideas which led to wonderful things, such as their subscription mp3 services.

[Beejus]

mtv actually had a little special bout computer geeks and how it's "the new cool" and kids were dissing the RIAA and what not, but you're right, I'm sure MTV has stocks in Apple somewhere so they will be promoting downlable music supscription services...

the power of money will always win:sad:

[eclectica]

MTV is owned by Viacom (http://www.cjr.org/owners/viacom.asp). Viacom's unit Paramount is an MPAA (http://www.mpaa.org/about/) member. The MPAA and the RIAA have similar goals, with the MPAA being focused on DVDs and the RIAA being focused on CDs.

[Beejus]

figures...


and damn the last two chapters I read in this book were boring...

this author keeps going off on people's lives that you don't even care about and then at the end of the 30 page chapter says "...and he helped invest in Napster" I was like, 30 pages of bordem just to say that? blah...

hopefully it gets better again like the first few chapters..

[Beejus]

this book has gotten really boring to the point where I don't want to read it anymore... but I'm gonna keep on truckin...

it really is more of the buisness perspective of the napster...it had some cool things in the beginning but I think they are over..

[eclectica]

Business bores me. It would be exciting for someone like Dick Cheney, who does "freedom kissing" with his wife while making love.

I read a book on the construction of the "Chunnel", which is the tunnel underneath the British channel. But I found that it focused too much on the business aspect rather than the other things, and it was boring.

It could be that they put the business aspect in it to fill in the pages. You expect a book to have 150 pages, just like you expect a CD to have 50 minutes on it, right?

[Beejus]

Well I just read chapter 6, entitled Fame, that was good. They touched on all the things I liked about Napster there. The technology, the users, the RIAA, everything.

Here's a quote from Lars Ulrich while riding up the elevator in the Napster building to discuss the immediate banning of all Napster users sharing Metallica songs...

"I don't really want to sue you"


Joseph Menn also found out that many of the artists that took part in the lawsuits didn't really want to but were forced by their record companies or else, which is really lame.

It's just nice that it finally picked back up to speed. Now the next chapter is about the battle of Napster vs. RIAA in court, that should still be interesting but I'm sure some buisness figures are gonna be thrown in...

[eclectica]

"I don't really want to sue you" is so lame and it reminds me of the saying "this hurts me more than this hurts you". It's just a saying people do to reassure themselves that they really aren't so evil. It's Apollonian cowardice, to be a bad person and not to have the courage to admit it to oneself.