Entry: The Napster Effect

This image is hilarious, if not a bit sad as well. I suggest you take the time to click on it and read it up close. It's in response to the public outcry stemming from Netflix's recent subscription changes.

This story hearkens back to the time when Napster decided that their only chance for survival was to go "legit". Remember those days? :)

(The following story is fictitious, of course. I've never been one to pirate music.)

Oh yes...I remember it like it was yesteryear. I'm working on finishing up my undergraduate studies and someone comes in to tell me about this awesome new program called "Napster". "It's all your favorite songs for free, man!". And yes, it was. It was one of the few times when something that was too good to be true actually turned out to be true. "Thank you, Napster!"....my friends would say as they found all of the songs that were nigh impossible to find in stores or online anymore. Heck...they even found songs that were impossible to find due to their lack of syndication. Everything from obscure cult-classic 70's songs to a riff that they heard on a random episode of 'TJ Hooker'. After a while, I read stories on Slashdot about how Napster was besieged by the music industry and how the barbarians were knocking furiously at the gate. Nobody ever asked them to fight for our so-called "right" to anonymously download music, but they did nonetheless. The battle waged for years and (after pulling every legal trick in the book to keep their services up and running) in the end, Napster found itself at the end of the plank that it had been forced to walk. The choice was now very simple... acquiesce, or jump into the shark-infested waters below.

I remember reading all of the op-eds and random Slashdot articles about how Napster had "sold out" and how "Hell NO...I will NEVER pay for music again!". Napster...the force of change that had altered the music industry forever and for several years provided anonymous, subscription-less music downloads...was now seen as the bad guy and subsequently abandoned under the banner of disillusion.

Netflix is just an other random and somewhat more trivial example of the "Napster effect"...a reminder that people can sometimes get too accustomed to things that are "too good to be true" so that when they are NO LONGER true, they are more than willing to look that gift horse in the mouth.