Irresistible Forces: The Business Legacy of Napster and the Growth of the Underground Internet [Paperback]

Trevor Merriden (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1841121703 | ISBN-13: 978-1841121703 | Publication Date: December 4, 2001 | Edition: 1

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...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)

From the Inside Flap

"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

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Capstone; 1 edition (December 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841121703
• ISBN-13: 978-1841121703
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 10 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,032,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not outstanding, December 17, 2001

By 

Pramit Ghosh (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Irresistible Forces: The Business Legacy of Napster and the Growth of the Underground Internet (Paperback)

Anyone who has used Napster (and it would be tough to find someone who hasnt!!!) will always have wondered what motivated shawn fanning (and his friends) to create Napster. Finally there is a book which deals with the topic. IRRESISTABLE FORCES does a concise job of charting Napster's creation, the near-fanaticism of its creators, Shawn Fanning's idealism, how the record companies woke up to the threat, and how they acted.

But thats not made me like this book. It also takes a peek at many of the pertinent post-napster issues - the future of peer-to-peer computing, online file sharing etc. The BMG-Napster venture is also talked about, and even the "children" of Napster find a mention. And all this from a unbiased point of view, giving a flavour of how all the concerned parties feel/felt.

There is only one thing I do not like about this book - and that is - for most of the issues - it does not do more than just take a peek. All the topics are dealt with too much brevity. I would have really loved this book had it been more detailed.

However, all said and done - the book is very good - and I gleaned a lot of information from it - only I was left thirsting for more. So I am going to go and get the other book in the market on Napster.

The bottom line?? For those who want wide-ranging information on Napster - this book will do for starters>