Irresistible Forces

This book is about - but not only about - Napster. The story of Napster is important in its own right, but its legacy even more so. The phenomenon that surrounds Napster has highlighted the extraordinary potential for the mass mobilisation of consumer and community power. This irresistible force - the underground Internet - has blown apart conventional models of doing business.

Merriden charts the birth of Napster and its genesis in Internet music communities. He describes in detail how big businesses felt complacent enough to ignore Napster, only to turn on it when the truth about their business models dawned. As the big companies got nasty, Bertelsmann and Thomas Middelhof broke ranks and did a deal with Napster.

The rapid spread in Napster's popularity has made many businesses sit up and notice. And it wasn't just because of the court room battles highlighted by the media every day. Some estimates put the peak number of Napster users at around 58 million. Hard to ignore the cries of the masses. Through the aftermath of those bloody court rooms, Napster has left a lasting impact on the future of e-business. This legacy affects more than music and record companies. In irresistible forces, Trevor Merriden shows how all businesses who have an interest in the Internet should pay attention. The influence on business of file sharing and peer-to-peer technology will be profound in the years ahead.

"Irresistible Forces" ist ein Buch über Napster, aber nicht nur über Napster. Die Napster-Geschichte selbst ist wichtig, aber noch wichtiger ist ihr Vermächtnis. Das Napster-Phänomen verfügt über eine außergewöhnliche Kraft zur Massenmobilisierung von Verbrauchern und Gemeinschaftsdenken. Diese unwiderstehliche Kraft - das Internet im Untergrund - hat konventionelle Geschäftsmodelle hinweggefegt.
Autor Trevor Merriden beschreibt die Geburt von Napster und seine Entstehung innerhalb der Internet Musik Communities. Er erzählt, wie große Unternehmen Napster eine ganze Zeitlang ignoriert haben, und sich dann Napster zuwandten, als die Unzulänglichkeit ihrer eigenen Geschäftsmodelle offensichtlich wurde. Als sich die Situation unter den großen Unternehmen immer weiter zuspitzte, scherten Bertelsmann und Thomas Middelhof aus und taten sich mit Napster zusammen.
Merriden analysiert sehr detailliert das Napster-Erbe und seinen nachhaltigen Einfluss auf das E-Business. Insbesondere beschäftigt er sich mit der Frage, wie künftig der Schutz des Urheberrechts im Internet aussieht und untersucht den Einfluss von Napster auf Musik- und andere Content-Anbieter, den Anstieg von Community-Modellen und die Zukunft der Peer-to-Peer-Technologie. Preface and Acknowledgements

1 The Birth of the Napster Phenomenon

2 The Growth of the Underground Internet

3 Big Boys Get Angry

4 The Battle Commences

5 The Voice of the People: The Fury of the Underground Internet

6 Bertelsmann (and The End of Napster As We Know It)

7 Children of Napster -
Music and Video

8 Will Online Subscription Prosper

9 Napster, File Sharing, Peer to Peer - and the Impact on the Wider Business World

10 Newcomers and Old Stagers

11 Irresistible Forces and Immovable Objects

12 Conclusions "...the story is gripping reading, but Merriden's grasp of the wider implications is even more impressive..." (Cre@te Online, November 2001)

"..a good job of telling an interesting tale while analysing the implications apparent today..." (Electronics Times, 12 November 2001)

"..a gripping read and a fascinating account.." (M2 Communications, 6 December 2001)

"...captivating account...a fine browse." (globebooks.com, 22 October 2001)

"...detailed and enjoyable...Irresistible Forces is a soundtrack for the new world of the internet." (The Manager, January 2002) Trevor Merriden is a journalist specializing in the application of new technology and ideas. He has written, lectured and broadcast on a wide range of business and economic issues for media in Europe, North America and Australiasia. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Internet Business magazine. "I believe that the peer-to-peer technology on which Napster is based has the potential to be adopted for many different uses. People generally speak about the ability to share other kinds of files in addition to music, and indeed, Napster has been contacted by entities such as the Human Genome project that are interested in sharing information among specific communities of interest. But peer-to-peer technology, or distributed computing, also has tremendous opportunity for sharing resources or computing power, lowering information and transaction costs. Peer-to-peer could be used to create a pool of resources in aggregate to solve a range of complex storage, processing and bandwidth problems. Peer-to-peer also has the potential to change today's understanding of the relationship between source and site. Think how much faster and more efficient the internet could be is instead of always connecting you to a central server every time you click on to a web site, your computer would find the source that housed that information nearest to you - if it's already on the compter of the kid down the hall, why travel halfway around the world to retrieve it? A number of companies, from Intel on down to small start-ups, are looking at ways to develop peer-to-peer technology, and I believe that many of them will succeed."
—Shawn Fanning, Napster creator, on the wider potential of peer-to-peer networking This is book is about - but not only about - Napster. The story of Napster is important in its own right, but its legacy even more so. The phenomenon that surrounds Napster has highlighted the extraordinary potential for the mass mobilisation of consumer and community power. This irresistible force - the underground internet - has blown apart conventional models of doing business.

Merriden charts the birth of Napster and its genesis in Internet music communities. He describes how big business felt complacent enough to ignore Napster, only to turn on it when the truth about their business models dawned. As the big companies got nasty Bertelsmann and Thomas Middelhof broke ranks and did a deal with Napster.

Irresistible Forces examines the legacy of Napster and its lasting impact on e-Business. In particular it charts the future of digital rights management, the lasting effect of Napster on the music and other content businesses, the rise of business to community models and the peer-to-peer future.

Irresistible Forces is the soundtrack for the new world of the Internet.