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Wired News : Open-Source 'Napster' Shut Down



open source and sharing music mets media conversion and market
conversion. guess who wins? hint: information doesn't get to be free this
time out.

 From Wired News, available online at:
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,34978,00.html

Open-Source 'Napster' Shut Down  
by Christopher Jones  

1:25 p.m. 15.Mar.2000 PST 
An open-source project started by members of AOL's Nullsoft music
division has been closed down just hours after it was announced to the
Net public. 

Justin Frankel and Tom Pepper, founders of Nullsoft and the popular
Winamp MP3 player, have been developing a file-sharing software tool
which could be even more potent than Napster in letting users share
MP3 files over the Net. 

See also: Alternative Net Protects Pirates
Look and listen: Lycos Music
Hear how MP3 Rocks the Web

But the "Gnutella" project may never get past its current beta stage
if AOL determines the project is a threat to record labels Warner
Music and EMI, which would become part of AOL this year if pending
mergers are approved. 

"The Gnutella software was an unauthorized freelance project and the
Web site that allowed access to the software has been taken down,"
said Josh Felser, general manager for AOL's Spinner and Winamp
projects. 

The Gnutella authors said they could not comment further. 

When the RIAA filed a lawsuit against Napster in December, the group
claimed that Napster encourages and facilitates the illegal copying
and distribution of copyrighted music. If AOL sees Gnutella in the
same light, the Nullsoft employees may not be able to continue
development. 

After Slashdot posted information on the Gnutella project yesterday,
there was a burst of traffic sent to the page on the Nullsoft site
with thousands of downloads, before the plug was pulled late Tuesday. 

"Due to a complete onslaught of usage from getting slashdotted, the
beta group is now closed. I will be creating a mailing list where we
will take 1,000 members for a closed beta group to test the network
stability of Gnutella before the 1.0 release," the site read. 

Unlike Napster, which uses a centralized server system to let users
share files, the Gnutella software was designed to create
self-perpetuating networks that grow independent of one company's
involvement. 

After installing the program, users would connect to other "servant"
computers, creating a chain of participating users. This architecture
would allow for one-to-one or many-to-many connections, and makes it
difficult for administrators to block the software, which occurred
recently with Napster on college campuses. 

"Distributed nature of servant makes it pretty damned tough for
college administrators to block access to the Gnutella service....
Ability to change the port you listen on makes it even harder for
those college administrators to block access," the site said before it
was taken down. 

Nullsoft was one of the earliest innovators in the MP3 movement, and
created the first popular player in Winamp. Since that time, programs
like Napster have made MP3 an even bigger phenomenon. 

There are several other Napster-like programs, including Imesh and
CuteMX, which let users find and download multimedia files on the Net.
There are also a few open-source programs in the works, such as Gnap,
which uses the GNU general public license. 

In addition, there is a network in development, dubbed Freenet, which,
like Gnutella, will have no centralized administrative infrastructure.


"Justin and Tom work for Nullsoft, makers of Winamp and Shoutcast.
See? AOL *CAN* bring you good things!," the Gnutella site said
yesterday. 

AOL's Felser would not comment on whether the Nullsoft founders would
be able to pursue their side project.  

Related Wired Links:  

He Wants His My.mp3.com  
15.Mar.2000 

Alternative Net Protects Pirates  
8.Mar.2000 

Pundits Ask: Who Owns Music?  
26.Feb.2000 

Dueling Over Digital Music Rights  
22.Feb.2000 

'Save Our Napster,' Say Students  
17.Feb.2000 

Time for a Napster Rest?  
10.Feb.2000 

MP3: RIAA 'Waged a Campaign'  
8.Feb.2000 

RIAA Suing Upstart Startup  
15.Nov.1999 

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