Ong-Lay Iv-Lay Apster-Nay
It's been said that Napster is the genie that just can't be put back into the bottle and it may be true.
At least that's what a group of Canadian web designers are hoping, and they've written a new program intended to make their desired view of the future more likely.
"Basically, what it does is change your MP3 file names to a version of Pig Latin, and that allows you to continue trading those MP3 files on programs like Napster," explains Pulse New Media director Jordan Klassen, in an interview with CBSNews.com.
Klassen says the program "came out of a brainstorming session. The intention was simply to allow people to keep trading on Napster once the song-blocking program is in place."
The Pig Latin program is being distributed for free on its own Web site, http://www.napcameback.com, and has been more or less "flying" off the Web since it was first launched on Friday.
According to one report, there have been at least 20,000 downloads of the program so far.
Napster, which has about 60 million users, is now under a court order requiring it to block the swapping of songs which it knows are copyright-protected. The injunction, issued March 5, has intensified speculation about whether Napster will survive and if so, in what form.
Unlike some other efforts that have given big headaches to music industry executives, this adventure in creative software isn't primarily aimed at subverting copyrights, according to Klassen.
"We really don't have a legal stance on this," says Klassen. "Our belief is that copyright infringement is wrong, but Napster is the way to go for music distribution in the future. We basically want to keep that alive until a proper payment system for those files can be put in place."
Isn't Pulse a bit worried that lawyers from the music industry may next come knocking at their door?
"No," says Klassen. "We talked to our lawyers and under the Canadian legal system, they believe that we're in the clear. All our program does is rename files."
Pulse, a new media development company which describes itself as "Young hip people working late with lots of smiles," is a division of SCSP Inc., a corporation wholly-owned by students at Scarborough College at the University of Toronto.
Klassen, who's personally being using Napster for about a year and a half, says Napster's importance goes beyond just a place to get things for free.
"Napster is a way to get music online for use on your computer. It's basically a new form of distribution and it works quite well," he says. "That's why we want to keep it alive."
By Francie Grace ©MMI Viacom Internet Services Inc. All Rights Reserved