-Bertelsmann (BMG) deal is pretty cool, and if it’s a blanket deal including “immunity” for songs already being served up by Napster users then I think it stands a good chance of success. I would definitely pay $60 for the ability to continue to use Napster in a relatively unfettered way. Essentially, under this plan Napster becomes a personal copyright clearinghouse, serving consumers as ASCAP or SOCAN serve radio stations and others who present music commercially.
The problem, though, is the same as when a newspaper I used to freelance for decided it wanted to put its content online. The problem was they hadn’t bought that right from me – they’d only bought the right to first publication. I would have been more than happy to allow them to put it online as well, or in a CD-ROM archive – but my price for such usage is different in that case – and they weren’t interested in paying me that rate, they wanted the same rate. So the question that remains to me is – are the artists going to be paid by Bertelsmann for this? Or is it just added to their deals for no additional consideration?
