Ruling in Favor of RIAA is a Win for Napster in Disguise

Judge Patel's March 5th ruling may look to favor the RIAA, but Napster can claim victory on the sole basis that they didn't get shut down. What was interesting is seeing how the press reacted. Some, like the Washington Post sees the ruling as a win for the RIAA, while others like News.com see it as a Napster win.

Napster wins hands down here, not only because they get to stay alive, but because the burden of policing the network has been put upon the RIAA. That means the RIAA will have to track down every single filename that can be altered an infinite amount of ways (like changing Metallica.mp3 to Met2allica.mp3) and prove that they own the copyright to said material. Napster users are hooked, I recently recieved a desperate email from a Napster user pleading me to point him to a Napster alternative because he is "on there 24/7". This email gave the office quite a chuckle, put showed how extreme the mentality of some Napster users is. Now that they are addicts, they will find a way around the policing. Suddenly our bright-eyed college students have turned into digital drug dealers, always finding a way around the RIAA's badge.

The fact that they don't have to shut down is also huge for their plans to launch a subscription service this summer. If they were to get shut down it would have been much harder this summer to not only get people to get back in the habit of using Napster, but have them pay for access. This ruling will also help keep Napster users from jumping ship to other file-sharing clones like Gnutella, iMesh and AIMster.

Quotes from the RIAA after the ruling seem to show that they are content with the verdict, but you can't believe that they are happy with it. The RIAA has wanted Napster shut down from day one, and it doesn't appear that this is going to happen. Napster users will have to work a bit harder for their MP3's now, but this ruling didn't do much damage to users or Napster in general. Score one for Napster and P2P technology.