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Three appellate court judges officially will decide the fate of music sharing company Napster after oral arguments in its copyright infringement case began this week. The decision won't matter much to the little guy who uses Napster software to download digital music files called MP3s, say local fans of the site's software and its music-for-free compatriots.
"Big deal," says Thomas, 30, an avid MP3 fan who wants to remain anonymous, about the possible closure of Napster for enabling the massive free downloading of copyrighted songs. "There are millions of copies (of the software) already out there, and independents have been setting up remote servers. I'll admit it will become more difficult to use Napster if they are forced to pull the plug, but not impossible
Gnarly Gnutella
Thomas, a Boulder Web designer and consultant, has one eye out for the Feds, however, giving a nod to the illegal nature of downloading copyrighted songs for free. "With all the litigation surrounding Napster, I would appreciate my name not appearing anywhere," he insists, noting that he has downloaded literally thousands of songs in the 10 months since he discovered Napster and a similar software, Gnutella.
Thomas was checking into some financial news online when he read about the MP3 format and soon was downloading a Steely Dan song with the help of Gnutella. "I actually downloaded and tried Gnutella before Napster because it utilizes peer-to-peer vs. central server protocols. So, I could connect to thousands of other Gnutella users without relying on a single central server," he says. That last bit was the tripping wire for Napster.
Gnutella, which lasted one day in March on an America Online server before AOL pulled the plug, is still alive and well ... in its clones. Gnutella, which was retired in August, was hailed for not having a central depot and for running with an open code. This allows programmers to continually improve the software, which has created Gnewtella, Gnotella and...