SAUSALITO, Calif. – Navicenter, a web-based applications hosting firm will soon be offering a free music from the current list of 13,000 choices to any individual visiting the service on or before March 18th. This is a blow to Napster, who is hoping to mend its relations
with the same music distributors it has caused dramatically eroded sales for
by facilitating the ease of illegally downloading and copying copyrighted
music files.
The announcement shortly followed the attendance of Navicenter founder
John Pruett at a technology summit held on Aspen, Colorado in conjunction with
the annual comedy festival. In attendance were Editor and Chief of the
Industry Standard.com, Jonathan Weber; Rob Burgess, Chairman and CEO of
Macromedia, Inc.; Paul Lee from BBC America; Nora Ephron, Academy Award
nominated director of movies such as You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle,
When Harry Met Sally, Michael, and Silkwood; Stu Bloomberg, Co Chairman of ABC
Entertainment Television Group; Rob Glaser, Chairmain and CEO of Real
Networks; and the liveliest member of the panel — comedian Steve Martin who
kept the audience in stitches as they tried to discuss the future of
entertainment on the internet.
The comments ranged from “I love Napster” to “The recording industry has
brought this upon themselves by charging $15 for a CD” to a stinging comment
by Rob Glaser, “The court decision is an important step in establishing clear
rules of the road for digital music distribution-rules that will help make
Internet bootlegging a thing of the past.”
“Our decision to work with Emusic and offer the largest selection of legal
music over the internet was in response to the panel’s summary that there was
an overwhelming demand for an easy-to-use, inexpensive alternative,” stated
John Pruett, who assembled a group to start Navicenter after leaving Qwest, a
forerunner is putting together a network capable of handling digital
distribution of entertainment applications, including movies. Mr. Pruett went
on to say, “Listeners don’t want to steal music and also are tired of paying
outrageous prices for CDs that were originally touted to ‘last a life-time’
but seem to scratch more often than an LP in a porcupines den.”
