Less minimum

Maybe Napster corporations, instead of gathering on your website in the Press Room section, praise, it makes sense to open the section of the necrologists. The number of publications that can be attributed to this genre cannot be accounted. They have been released since July 2000 - from the date of the first decision of Madame Payel on the closure of Napster until he learned to prevent the penetration into the system of any files that cause complaints from the Recording Industry Association of America . July 27, 2000 was the day of the first series of obituary. Since then, the writers about Napster can not reorient in any way.

Yesterday there was a minimum , the whole last year Napster gave all the reasons for this. The number of files that were missed by the system steadily falls since March. Attentive observers from Webnoize scrupulously record signs of decline. One and a half million users simultaneously in February. At the end of April - a decline in the total number of songs by 57 % , and the number of songs per user is almost two -thirds (from 198 to 74). In early May, a short -term peak of activity with 8 million users at each moment (despite the fact that by early May, according to Napster, the total number of songs was reduced by 80 %, according to Webnoize - by 36). But already at the end of May, the number of files per user is 21, and on June 22, after the release of the latest version of the Napster client program, one and a half . Brief remission is laid for the dying.

Today, at least June 22, Napster has released a new version of his client - 2.0 beta 10.3 with built -in file recognition technology. Users with previous versions of the client were simply denied access to servers; The upgrade, thus, turned out to be mandatory. It was assumed that the recognition technology (for the sake of licensing which Napster in early June concluded an agreement with Loudeye Technologies ) will solve the problem of excessive zeal of already working filters: due to their incorrect functioning from the Napster system, not only files that are the reason for the claims of the sound recording industry, but also many others, are quite quite quite legitimate. Hopes, however, were not justified. On July 2, ten days after the release of Beta 10.3 of version 2.0 Napster announced the temporary closure of the service for technical reasons - under the pretext of implementing and testing new filtration technologies. The file exchange service has not yet been functioning. The audience is still entering the servers of the company, but, apparently, only because the Napster client uses as a player for local music. Such users are from 100 to 150 thousand .

Tomorrow is less than a minimum and on Wednesday, representatives of Napster once again went on a gentle date with Madame Payel.

Madame Paytel, I must say, with each of his access to the stage acquires the features more and more infernal. In March, the correspondent San Jose Mercury News interviewed his colleagues Madame - in order to find out what she actually is. Colleagues in general agreed that Marilyn Hall Payel combines a tendency to compassion and rudeness in circulation . I don't know how about compassion; The rudeness of this lady is definitely characteristic. At the hearing on July 11, Madame Payel shouted at Napster representatives - in any case, in no other way than in increased tones, her remarks cannot be reproduced, even crack.

Madame Payel can also be understood. For more than a year, she has to play the role of a teacher in a group of headless first -graders, perhaps characteristic of her, but clearly tiring. Therefore, now the judge spoke in short phrases. Napster does not have the right to resume the exchange of files before he achieves one hundred percent exclusion of counterfeit files. One hundred percent, do you understand? Representatives of Napster claim that they have achieved the exclusion of 99.4 % of unwanted files. I don’t know where they got this figure from - it looks, on the one hand, suspiciously accurate, on the other - suspiciously close to one hundred percent. Although everything can be, Napster tried very hard, and it is not possible to check these data even for scouts from Webnoize. Moreover, it is not possible to check whether one hundred percent exclusion of copyright objects from the file exchange system is not possible for Napster, since no user is allowed into the system. Madame Payel is useless to remind that one hundred percent perfection is impossible, because a person is generally imperfect. She was tired of this whole tragomotin to the extreme. She needs a hundred percent. Zero error. Dot.

Well, yes, Napster appealed to the same appeal court of the ninth district , where he had already visited more than once. Just the point?

And users, and so for the past six months, have demonstrated unanimous and patience that have been striking for such a crowd, gradually go to other P2P networks. Napster has been inactive for eleven days, and when it returned to life is unknown (all the more it is not known what this life will be). Other networks - including those that are not so easy to force the content, since their complete decentralization and, accordingly, the absence of central servers leave no chance for the use of filters - gain momentum. On July 11, San Francisco Chroniclewrote about the KazAA ​​system - a Dutch decentralized network, which has common roots with a Gnutella system than with Napster. In general, decentralization becomes a key characteristic of P2P systems (in fact, it has always been key, only to the tragic, length per year, the dying of Napster was not so obvious). The rather miserable, but at first glance at first glance, the brainchild of the MusicCity and PressPlay sound recording industry, in general, also develop (they are quite acceptable for law -abiding and familiar to the turned out copy system). Napster loses users every day. Users go to companies that, for the most part, studied on Napster experience. Maybe this is an adult life : on their own experience, show the successors how not to do, and then die painfully.

Only sobs do not need. He will not die at all, of course. Bertelsmann Corporation on July 1, as part of its Ecommerce Group, opened a Bemusic unit, which will be coordinated by all corporation projects related to the distribution of musical products: CDNOW , BMG Direct and MyPlay ; Napster will be another concern of the new unit. But an independent beautiful game ended. Napster fought for the right to not be closed for a single day - because a year ago it was obvious that the loyalty of users was not rubber. A week and a half ago, he surrendered - albeit under a plausible pretext, but surrendered. The loyalty of users of the test clearly does not withstand.

However, all this is understandable without unnecessary explanations. Just another necrologist.