You know Napster has won
when ...
It was the day before the courts delivered their verdict. Napster was
open, though I'm not sure I was downloading anything at the time. I noticed
that someone had tried to download a wonderful piece of music from me,
but had met with technical difficulties - around halfway through the download
it had been terminated for some reason. I sent off an instant message to
the downloader, saying something like "it's a great piece of music, so
maybe you should try again tomorrow". We exchanged a few messages back
and forth in a pleasant, though non-commital conversation. At one point
I noted that the piece that he'd been trying to download was good enough
to merit purchasing the CD.
It was at this point that he responded in a way that convinced me that
ultimately Napster will win; in a way that demonstrated just how much a
part of our daily lives a tool such as this has become. His response:
Yes, I already have a copy, but I'm too lazy
to go downstairs to get it.