There is only one clear winner in the lawsuit pitting the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) against Napster: the lawyers. Unless you've been sleeping under a rock for the last month or two, you know the lawsuit challenges Napster's right to exchange music files via the Internet. Actually, Napster doesn't exchange or copy files themselves, but rather provides the means for consumers to do so. The Napster software is remarkably simple; it allows users to log into Napster via the Internet thereby automatically adding their MP3 music files on their computer to an index which consumers can browse to search for and download desired files. From this point of view, Napster is not guilty of copyright infringement, rather it is their customers who are committing the offense. The RIAA argues the Napster software facilitates misappropriation of music files, therefore they are responsible.

The reason why Napster is so popular seems to escape the RIAA; people are simply fed up with the ridiculously high prices they are paying for music. Plus, with the changes in media formats both in the past (e.g., LPs to CDs) and pending in the future, people are questioning why they have to pay for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band more than once. If the entertainment industry wasn't so greedy, this problem probably wouldn't have occurred.

With this said, let us also not forget that one of the fundamental precepts of our country is to protect the intellectual property of the individual. Consequently, we must respect copyrighted material, patents, trade secrets, and trademarks. If such protection didn't exist, inventions of any kind would be slow in coming and our quality of life would simply stagnate. There is little point to investing time and resources into something that will only be misappropriated. We have seen this numerous times in the computer field alone; the case of the DeScribe word processor a few years ago comes to mind as an example. The company was run out of business simply because the files were copied over the Internet, and a fine word processor was lost.

What the RIAA doesn't realize is they are fighting the simple concept of software piracy, and there is no practical way of stopping it. Even if they succeed in stopping Napster, a dozen more companies will pop-up to take its place; Freenet, iMesh, and Gnutella are but a few that come to mind. In other words, by stopping Napster, the RIAA is simply putting one finger into a very leaky dike, one they cannot be stopped using traditional legal methods. The RIAA is going to have to come to grips with this and modify their approach accordingly.

As I see it, the entertainment industry has three choices:

• Continue with endless lawsuits that will only benefit the legal profession.
• Establish a new type of subscription service to download entertainment files.
• Develop new security technology that finally puts an end to the misappropriation of files.

If new security technology was devised, it would benefit everyone: the entertainment field, the computer industry, the art field, engineering, etc. In other words, the money spent on research and development would easily pay for itself. Such technology could turn a no-win situation into a win-win situation for everyone. We could then stop paying the lawyers and get on with our lives.

  WARPSTOCK

The 4th Annual Warpstock will be held September 9-10th in Philadelphia. Judging by the press clippings that cross my desk, it looks like another fine conference in the offing. Among the speakers and sessions are:

• "OS/2 Device Drivers News" by Oliver Stein of IBM Germany. Get the latest scoop on current hardware support for OS/2.

• "OS/2 Netlabs: an Overview" by Adrian Gschwend of Netlabs. Netlabs is the premier source for free high-quality OS/2 applications, and Adrian will an overview of Netlabs and descriptions of the individual projects.

• "OS/2 in Embedded Systems" by Achim Hasenmuller of InnoTek. OS/2 is not just for desktops and server - it also works great in non-PC devices like set-top boxes and nuclear power plant controls.

• "Running Win32 Applications on OS/2: the Odin project" by Achim Hasenmuller of InnoTek. Let Achim amaze you once again by showing you some Windows 95/98/NT/2000 applications that you thought wouldn't run on OS/2.

• "Warpzilla: What's in it for users?" by Mike Kaply and Jeff Kobal of IBM and Henry Sobotka of Warpzilla. The next generation of web browsers is closer than you think. Mike, Jeff, and Henry will show you what happens when you combine the power of OS/2, the Internet, and open source.

• "OS/2 Warp for Road Warriors" by Tim Sipples of IBM. OS/2 Warp 4 was designed not only to be the ultimate desktop operating system, but also the ultimate notebook operating system. Tim Sipples, OS/2 user extraordinaire, shows you just how amazing OS/2 can be on a notebook, provided you know what to do.

• "MP3s - what they are and what you can do with them" by Samuel Audet, author of PM123. MP3's are the future of digital music, and OS/2 has great support for MP3 audio files. Samuel will talk about the MP3 format itself, what it really means to the world, and what MP3 software is available on OS/2.

• "OS/2 Problem Solver" by David Moskowitz of Productivity Solutions. In this sequel to last year's very popular session, David talks problems and solutions with all sorts of OS/2 setups, with plenty of time for your questions and answers. Don't miss this one!

• Papyrus Office by ROM Logicware. Ulli Ramps will demonstrate this new native OS/2 office suite, which offers a word processor, desktop publisher, spreadsheet, and database.

• KidStuff for OS/2 by Aviar. Gwen Veneskey will show you OS/2's only edutainment collection for children 4-7. It's perfect opportunity for introducing the young ones to the world's best computing platform.

• Zipstream Secure by Carbon Based Software. Bruce Leiwant will show you this amazing file compression/encryption software. Protect your data and your hard drive investment at the same time!

• SciTech Display Doctor by SciTech Software. Kendall Bennett proves that in at least one case, OS/2 has stellar hardware support. The SciTech video device drivers are in a class of their own.

• Netop Remote Control by Crosstec. Doug Taylor shows you how to save money by using Netop Remote Control software to manage other systems on your network, whether you have two computers or two thousand.

Enjoy the shows!

Keep the Faith!