It seems like nobody can stay out of trouble lately. Some folks are just getting better at getting out of it. And some folks will get theirs soon if this keeps up.

I know you’re all sick of me talking about Microsoft (which I have on Tuesday and several occasions in the past). But I do need to mention something about it. Today Microsoft gave its response to the Justice Department’s proposal to break up its monopoly (read my past columns to see what I would like to see happen to them). Basically what Microsoft is doing is all but demanding that the court dismiss the breakup proposal, or otherwise face a lengthy court battle. Instead, the Microsoft proposal mirrored earlier proposals: opening up the API^(?), giving PC makers and ISPs more leeway in software bundles without violating contracts with Microsoft, and other ones, too (read the full text of Microsoft’s remedy here).
But the one thing Microsoft said it couldn’t do is remove Internet Explorer from Windows. Microsoft said it would give computer makers the option to “hide” it, but said it’s technically impossible to completely remove Internet Explorer from Windows. Funny. 98lite seems to clean out Internet Explorer and other unneccessary Windows features just fine. Why doesn’t Microsoft buy that company, just like it has bought everything else? Considering the company is removing everything with limited API^(?) access, I think that’s pretty impressive. And isn’t that the Microsoft philosophy? “If we can’t do it, buy a company that can!” Heck, that’s how the world got Hotmail.
But Microsoft isn’t the only one that’s getting hit with lawsuits. Napster, the controversial MP3 trading network, is getting hit with lawsuits left and right. One of the more recent suits is one filed by the band Metallica (read the story here). Well, Metallica got its wish, and 300,000 users were banned from Napster. Moments later, all 300,000 created new accounts.
Is this over? I don’t think so. This just proves that computer geeks who want their MP3s will get them one way or another. If their server/school was banning the Napster protocol, they just changed the port settings or they used a Napster clone.
They’ve even gone further, hacking into the Napster code to allow it to trade any files whether they are legal or not. This proves just one thing to me: If you close off access at one point, another access point will open.
I remember when this whole Napster thing originally came about. One of the reasons people were having such fits about it is because of the bandwidth it was taking up (story here). Oregon State University banned it because of all the bandwidth it was sucking up. I’m wondering if anybody is looking at other potential bandwidth suckers? There are plenty of sites out there that feed live video as well as audio, and nobody seems to be complaining.
There are also other sites that are doing much the same thing as Napster. So why doesn’t somebody try to shut them down? Why is everybody focusing all their attention on Napster? Because they got the original batch of media coverage, and they’re the ones the college kids are using. If students were using a different service (which a lot of students are), the world probably wouldn’t be nearly as pissed off at Napster.