Napster denies fault in piracy case
■ In response to the
copyright suit filed by
Metallica, the MP3 site
claims no responsibility
By Rebecca Newell
Oregon Daily Emerald
Despite being attacked by advo
cates of the- music industry, as
well as unhappy banned con
sumers, Napster is holding strong
in their position that they are not
breaking copyright laws.
On Tuesday, July 11, Metallica
drummer Lars Ulrich stood before
. i _ a Senate com
1 calling
for a stop to In
ternet music
'~-^dMP3 “piracy”. As the
spokesperson
USHMSfliP for Metallica,
which is suing
Napster, as well
as others in the major music in
dustry, Ulrich called for govern
ment intervention to resolve the
problem.
“I don’t think there is a way this
can be worked out without your
involvement,” Ulrich said, ad
dressing the Senate. “Napster hi
jacked our music without asking.”
Napster has quickly gained
popularity in the last year by pro
viding online surfers die ability to
freely trade or download MP3
files, which compress music from
compact discs into computer
files.
Metallica stepped into the fight
after the group heard an unre
leased work-in-progress for the
soundtrack of Mission Impossible
2, and the leak was traced back to
Napster. Rapper Dr. Dre has
joined Metallica as the most vocal
representatives from the music
industry, which is demanding ac
tion.
Despite the opposition and af
ter a New York federal judge’s rul
ing that the company was break
ing copyright law, Napster is
standing its ground that it’s in the
right.
“I think we must let the market
work and let history be our guide
in not squashing this technology
this soon,” Hank Barry said. Bar
ry, CEO of Napster, has noted that
the company is working out
copyright complaints with radio,
television and satellite TV organi
zations.
After the April 28 court ruling,
Napster made an attempt to ap
pease the Recording Industry As
sociation of America and oppo
nents such as Metallica, by
requesting the band to provide a
list of the names of Napster users
who have committed copyright
infringements.
With the names from that list,
Napster has banned over 300,000
users. 30,000 of those users are
now appealing the court ruling, an
option given to them by Napster.
Nonetheless, Napster’s actions are
not a solution, according to
groups supporting the Download
able Music Awareness Project.
A partner in DMA, Michael
Robb of Cognicity, noted that a
balance needs to be struck be
tween the wide-open MP3 access
that Napster provides, and the en
crypted formats that music
groups such as Metallica are
pushing for.
According to Paul Anthony,
CEO and founder of DMA and
Rumblefish Records, DMA’s goal
is to educate consumers, rather
than saying what is right or
wrong. By putting it in perspec
tive, DMA believes they can con
vince fans that by providing mu
sic for free, they are affecting the
future music industry negatively.
“We make money by selling in
tellectual property. Just because
you can’t put it in a box doesn’t
mean it’s not worth something,”
Anthony said.
Cognicity, a leading audio wa
termarking provider, is working
on technology that will solve
many of the concerns of content
owners and organizations includ
ing the Artists Coalition Against
Piracy and the RIAA. Cognicity,
which is located in Minneapolis,
Minn., has created AudioKey
MP3 tMark V.1.0, a tool which
will protect record labels, artists
and music providers from piracy.
AudioKey is the online music
industry’s first transactional wa
termarking solution for MP3 mu
sic downloads, and embeds
unique watermarks into digital
audio files in real-time, as the file
is being downloaded. With this
technology, content owners can
fingerprint music and identify
those who abuse content distribu
tion rights.
“The real-time process is very
fast and will not impact the con
sumer download time,” said
Michael Fitts, president of In
diego Global Distribution. “We
believe this approach will help
keep the honest people honest.”
With further dispute on the
horizon between Napster and the
music industry, Anthony con
cluded that while Napster’s tech
nology is amazing, they aren’t tak
ing responsibility for their
actions. But technological
progress like Cognicity’s Au
dioKey will force them to do just
that.
“The fans want the music, and
we’re trying to give it to them,”
Anthony said.
The Associated Press contributed to this
article.
Quicker response could save lives
■a newly released study
suggests calling for help in
the crucial minutes after a
heart attack could help
prevent needless deaths
By Dulcie Feng
for the Emerald
The Rapid Early Action for
Coronary Treatment (REACT)
study released July 4 found that
most heart attack patients don’t
call 911 emergency services when
they feel discomfort in their chest.
That trend seems to be chang
ing.
Gary Young, medical director
of the emergency department at
the Sacred Heart Medical Center,
said emergency calls from heart
attack patients have doubled
since the study was released.
“Every day [before the study
was released] we got about 10 pa
tients with chest pain, and last
week we got close to 20,” Young
said.
The study was conducted be
tween April 1996 and August
1997, and its primary goal was to
reduce patient delay from the
time of the first heart attack symp
toms to time of treatment in the
emergency department. Oregon
Health Sciences University was
one of the Northwest sites for the
study.
Jerris Hedges, chairman of the
Department of Emergency Medi
cine in OHSU, said Eugene and
Springfield were chosen in the
study because they represent
middle American communities.
They are not too large like Port
land, but they’re big enough to
have the advantages of news me
dia, Hedges said.
OHSU has worked with com
munity groups to educate people
in the study area. The researchers
worked with doctors, nurses,
emergency service groups, pa
tients with no heart disease and
those high-risk, heart attack pa
tients in McKenzie Willamette
Hospital and Sacred Heart Med
ical Center to enforce awareness
of heart attacks and the appropri
ate response to them.
The REACT study also encour
ages patients to go to hospitals
quickly and call for ambulances
rather than driving themselves to
the hospital. Hedges suggests pa
tients should take nitroglycerine
or aspirin when they start to feel
discomfort. The major symptoms
of heart attacks include trouble
breathing, upset stomach and
pressure, tightness and heaviness
in the chest.
“When the discomfort doesn’t
go away in 15 minutes, they
should go to the hospital,”
Hedges said.
Hedges said an ambulance usu
ally takes 5 to 6 minutes, maybe
up to 10 to 12 minutes, on average
to reach patients.
“If the ambulance gets to you,
you’ve got a paramedic team that
can deliver medicine and oxygen,
and if you go into cardiac arrest
they can defibrillate you,” he
said. “So essentially, it’s like
bringing the hospital to the pa
tient.”
In addition, Hedges suggests
patients should not call their doc
tors before they go to the hospital
because calling doctors and wait
ing for their calls wastes crucial
treatment time.
“Even if you would reach the
doctor quickly in the office, they
would only re-enforce the same
message,” Hedges said. “So it is
unnecessary to even make the
call.”
The National Heart, Lung and
Blood Institute sponsored the RE
ACT study. Jeffrey Cutler, director
of the clinical applications and
prevention program at the Na
tional Heart, Lung and Blood In
stitute in Washington, D.C., said
the most dangerous part of a heart
attack is the first few hours.
The purpose of “our research
program here is to conduct the
study both to see if people could
be educated in such a way that
they would respond more quick
ly and get to the hospital, as well
as to find out if a community edu
cation program would put into a
place and carry out the emer
gency department overwhelmed
by many people,” Cutler said.
The Springfield Fire Depart
ment has decided to more for
ward with the REACT findings,
lean Loun, an SFD spokesperson
and a former REACT organizer in
Eugene, said there is no question
that education about symptoms
help people to know that they are
having heart attacks and to act
fast.
“We just want to reach more
and more people,” Loun said.
Eugene resident Donna Jean
Fox, 66, said that when her hus
band had a heart attack they
called an ambulance within 15
minutes and that call saved her
husband’s life.
“Don’t let it go longer than 15
minutes,” Fox said. “Don’t hesi
tate to call 911.”
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