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Technology Stocks : MPPP - MP3.com -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rocky Reid who wrote (960)	4/28/2000 11:49:00 PM
From: Jerry Whlan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1116

Do you even understand how beam-it works? Do you understand the legal concept of fair-use? The my.mp3.com service verifies that you have the physical CD in your possesion. Once you prove that you hold the CD, you are given access to the same music as you already own, except you don't need to carry the CD and a player with you where ever you go. There is no copyright violation. Fair-use allows you to make as many copies of any content that you own for your personal use. The my.mp3.com service is just the most recent incarnation of fair-use. In a full trial, the details will be hashed out so that even the most non-internet savvy judge can understand this fact. Not only does my.mp3.com use beam-it to verify that you own the CD, they also link to cd-retailers so that once you have purchased the CD, you do not have to wait for it to be shipped to you for you to have access to it over the internet. The industry is again playing their traditional role of reactionary luddites by trying to fight this. Kicking and screaming, or through the ascension of more enlightenment management, they will be brought into the 21st century and they will embrace this new method of content distribution. It is only a matter of time, the customer demand for it (particularly with G3, high-bandwidth, wireless devices coming out this year) will be to strong to resist. Think what you want about "copyright violations", snicker, but even in the worst case, and the RIAA is awarded the full punitive damages of $8B that they are asking for, mp3.com will still be around in a year from now because the appeals process for such a judgement will take at least that long.

To: Rocky Reid who wrote (960)	4/29/2000 12:06:00 AM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 1116

All Aboard On--> the message boards Another sob story ... this time: tech-style CBS Marketwatch When MP3.com IPO'd almost a year ago, the message boards were all the rage, compiling a steady stream of both bullish and bearish posts at a frenetic pace. But, as the stock steadily tumbled off its opening day highs, the boards began to lose their buzz. Well, the buzz is back ... unfortunately for shareholders, the resurgence of the boards hasn't coincided with the turnaround of the stock. On the contrary, investors returned to their left-for-dead virtual arena on Friday to engage in a heated cyber-debate over Friday's copyright-infringement judgement that was handed down in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America. See full story. As sellers mercilessly chopped the stock down 40 percent, shareholders left holding the bag hardly knew what hit 'em. On Yahoo, MP3 bulls, like SnakeBit, felt compelled to defend the company: "Yes, artists should be able to make a living from their work. Yes making music is work. And yes, the MP3 technology can be used to undermine the current way that musicians make that living. However, MP3.com does not allow people to share songs. MP3.com neither encourages, nor fosters, nor enables song piracy or sharing. The Beam-IT program is a bit touchier, because it allows a music consumer to 'upload' music from their CD to the MP3.com server where they can listen to it from anywhere via an Internet connection. There must be some fair middle-ground where musicians are fairly compensated for their work while consumers are able to get access to music at a fair price. This is precisely why Beam-It was engineered the way it was: the consumer is required to buy and own the CD (and, thereby, pay the musician) before he or she can use My.Mp3.com. This way, the musician is paid (from the CD sale) and the consumer gets to listen to her music from the Internet. Not only is this fair, it is productive." Same from StuBaby: "Legal issues aside, I really think My.MP3 helps commercial artists alot more than it hurts them. The RIAA does not want you to understand this because they want to be in control of the revenue stream. Believe me, you will get fairer treatment for your efforts in an open marketplace than one controlled by a virtual monopoly." No everyone was so gung-ho. IomegaNut felt no remorse on The Motley Fool: "This is a major win for recording artists and copyrighted music in general. Copyrighted music is NOT a commodity. It is owned by its creators and publishers. You do NOT have a 'Right' to have the latest Eric Clapton song and do with it what you will." And on Raging Bull, JeffJL didn't expect a recovery: "As far as I see it, the ruling has effectively killed this stock for a long, long, long time. I will be surprised if it ever recovers. Shareholder lawsuits to follow (and why shouldn't they? Robertson's decision to go with Beam-It was an unwise gamble). Remember, the music publishers have filed the same suit and are now assured of a similar positive ruling. If MPPP (MPPP: news, chart) has to pay out damages to the RIAA, they will have to pay out a similar amount to the music publishers as well." Just a few samples from a busy day in the MP3 message board world. The company's controversial means of distributing music via the Internet originally propelled the stock into triple-digits, but, times have certainly changed. Now MP3 is fighting for its life, and Friday's verdict and subsequent stock decline had investors feeling quite chatty heading towards the weekend. aolpf.marketwatch.com